


Collar Full

by Miele



Category: Powerpuff Girls
Genre: BlossomxButch, Blossutch - Freeform, Crack Relationships, Enemy Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Hate to Love, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Mixed pairing, OTP Feels, Romance, Rowdyruff Boys - Freeform, Superheroes, Teenagers, The Powerpuff Girls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 12:05:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16158638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miele/pseuds/Miele
Summary: Being a superhero was hard. Being a teenage superhero was hell. And this Blossom Utonium knew for a fact. The boys are back, but why? "He likes you. Just play along until we find what they are up to" "This is a horrible idea" "I am not asking you to like it" Different pairing, same old story. (Rating may change).





	1. We've waited so damn long, we're sick and tired

_I do not own the Powerpuff Girls._

**Collar Full**

**Chapter one**

Being a superhero was hard.

Being a teenage superhero was hell.

And this, Blossom Utonium knew for a fact.

Alone and covered in monster's drool, she felt for the first time the entire weight of the city on her shoulders.

Her  _lovely_  sisters had disappeared for the weekend for reasons that Blossom had once defined "questionable", leaving her alone to protect the weak and the oppressed and to open pickles' jars.

_"Metallica's concert? Really Buttercup?"_

" _You are no fun, sis"_

Protecting the city wasn't fun, but somebody had to do it.

It wasn't that Blossom couldn't handle it, there were few things that she couldn't do.

Besides since the new invention of the Professor had been set up - a barrier that kept most of the monsters out of Townsville - monsters' attacks had became less and less frequent. The bad guys, that once harshly fought against the Powerpuff girls, were now in jail or, in Bubbles' opinion, retired. The blonde firmly believed that there was a sort of retirement home for old supervillains and her idea, even if a little foolish, had never been proved wrong.

The monster-barrier kept the majority of the monsters out of town and those that for a series of unfortunate events were able to cross it were punished by the girls.

Here is where we go back to an angry, drool-covered, Blossom.

It was a small monster, a big eye in the center, hundreds of small and pointy teeth, and apparently the power of hyper-salivation and incredible aim in shooting spit.

An easy job, ordinary administration.

…

If it would have been an ordinary day.

That day Blossom was already drenched in pickles' juice, her skin was black and covered in soot and now she could add to her list disgusting monster's saliva.

Her bad mood was, at her eyes, fully justified.

Her anger exploded and half a second later the monster was lying dead at her feet. Blossom gave one last tentative kick to be sure he was out cold before heading back home.

She was stinky, dirty, exhausted but, most of all, pissed.

The dress she had worn to the inauguration of the fountain was destroyed.

When the major had spilled on her half of his jar, she had hoped in her heart the dressed could be saved, but it was almost impossible to wash away all that drool. Not to speak about the ash, her whole face was black. The explosions of the professor were becoming too frequent for her taste, she had been able to stop the fire just in time before leaving to fight the spitting monster.

Yes, that stupid monster that had decided to show up, as if she hadn't had enough problems to deal with already.

And it was useful, if not necessary, to point out that if Buttercup and Bubbles would have been present, if the professor wouldn't have tried to burn the house down, if the major would have been able to freaking open that jar and if the monster-barrier would not have decided to stop working that day, well… Blossom would probably, if not certainly, not be in the mood she was.

That, if you still didn't get it, wasn't the best of the moods.

When she entered her house, she couldn't be more different from when she had left it in the morning.

The events of the day had left a mark on her, literally.

She had fought a monster, inaugurated a fountain, helped the major and stopped a fire.

The worse was that the day was not over yet.

Robin's birthday party was about to start and between fighting crime and participating to social events, Blossom preferred the former even though it came with spitting and pickles' juice.

Blossom Utonium hated being late, but that day she discovered she hated many things and one more didn't make much of a difference.

She took more time than she expected to clean herself up and once she opened her closet she realized that not only she was late, but she had no idea of what to wear.

There was an alternative. True. A fast, but painful alternative.

" _Blossom maybe you should try something different, maybe you should let go"_

" _Bubbles I am not wearing any of that"_

Well, maybe she had just changed her mind.

Bubbles had chosen for her what she called the perfect outfit for Robin's party.

Robin was a childhood friend of the girls and when Bubbles had discovered she wouldn't be in town for the celebration, she had made sure everything would be perfect even in her absence.

On Blossom's pink blanket were resting a black circle skirt and simple tank top of the same colors of the sheets.

Usually Blossom didn't take fashion advice from any of her sisters, but that was an emergency - and that is how she found out she hated being late more than wearing Bubble's outfits.

She dressed up as fast as possible, she twisted her still wet hair in a messy bun and in flash of pink she was standing on the "Welcome" mat outside the house.

Before leaving she remembered one last thing: she ran in the laboratory, gave a quick kiss to a busy professor, before taking off in the skies of Townsville.

* * *

Or better streets.

"Bubbles is going to pay for this" she muttered to keep herself company.

The skirt ended up being a traitor. Paparazzi were always ready to take the most embarrassing photos and at the moment she didn't need any unflattering picture of her butt on some cheap magazine.

She was now in front of the building where the party was taking place.

She dragged her feet to the line of people gathered at the entrance and sighed waiting patiently for her turn.

A club. A stupid, noisy club.

She loved Robin but they were dramatically different, she had tried to persuade her from having her birthday in such a crowded place but the brunette hadn't listened to a single word.

"Blossom? Blossom Utonium? What are you doing here?" Blossom immediately turned her head to meet the surprised look of a boy about her age.

"I haven't seen you in a while...Adam!" she commented taking an entire second to come up with his name. Adam was a boy going to her same high school, he had dirty blonde hair and every time he smiled two dimples formed at the sides of his mouth.

He was a good friend of Bubbles, but she rarely saw him, last time they met was probably before summer break started.

Summer was unfortunately a busy period for superheroes, strangely crime always picked up during the holidays.

"I know! I always see Buttercup and Bubbles at the beach but you are never there!".

Correction: summer was a busy period for some superheroes.

"Oh, you know I am… I have many things to do and I don't really have time for anything else".

The two took a step forward as the line started to move.

"Of course you do" Blossom didn't like at all his tone or his knowing smile. "I am actually very surprised to see you here".

The redhead arched an eyebrow annoyed. What was he implying?

That she was no fun? That she didn't let go? There were other people in her life reminding her that, she didn't need any more.

"Excuse me?" she tried to remain calm and composed, but the tone of her voice betrayed her.

"Well…this is not really your place, isn't it?" Adam struggled to find the words noticing her rising anger.

"I dance-" she started stopping immediately when she realized she was justifying her presence there. "I am here as you are. There is nothing strange in it, okay?" she regained all the firmness in her voice and to avoid any eye contact that could betray that newly found and still fragile confidence, she started smoothing down the wrinkles of her skirt.

After a few seconds, Adam broke the silence.

"I wasn't implying anything bad, you know" he said smiling softly and keeping his voice low.

"I am… tired. And sorry. Yes, tired and sorry. I had a really bad day" she looked up noticing they were next in line. She was feeling incredibly stupid. What was happening to her? Usually she was really good at keeping her emotions in check, she rarely felt angry, but that day was the second time she had lost her temper.

She took a step forward showing the bodyguard her ID, but before entering she turned around and gave Adam a half-smile.

"I hope you have fun. Maybe I'll see you later and… again I am sorry".

"Hey, don't worry! Even superheroes have their bad days. I'll see you later." he winked at her and Blossom suddenly felt a little less guilty.

That peace of mind was soon destroyed as she was met by loud music, flashing lights and a sticky pavement.

First goal of the night: find Robin.

She looked around and immediately spotted her friend, who was waving at her with an exaggerate movement of her arm, before losing balance and falling on a leather couch.

Second and most important goal of the night: remain sane and avoid the dance floor.

She could do it.

She was Blossom Utonium, she could do it... right?

* * *

"Blossom this is so sweet!"

Blossom smiled at Robin who was looking through the album of photos crafted for the occasion.

"Don't thank me, Bubbles did most of the work. Buttercup instead wants you to have this" she handed the birthday girl the CD with the logo of Buttercup's band "They are both very sad they couldn't make it".

Robin took the present and hugged it to her chest.

"You guys are amazing! I was so worried none of you would come! Especially you Blossom, you are always busy and I know this not where you want to be".

"I am here, right? This is what matters" the redhead tried to hide her annoyance behind a new smile. Apparently, the pink leader of the Powerpuff Girls and a club were not seen to fit together.

"Yes and I am very glad you are" Robin kissed her best friend's cheek before standing up. Blossom had to do the same to avoid the girl an embarrassing fall.

"You look amazing! We should find ourselves some knights or this" the brunette pointed at her dress and her incredibly high heels "is going to be a waste".

"Your judgement is too impaired for me to believe your compliment, but thank you anyway" Blossom said supporting her friend by the forearm and ignoring the last part of her sentence. Robin giggled taking another sip from her drink before grabbing the redhead's hand in her own.

"Let's go dancing! All the other guests are already on the dancefloor"

Unfortunately, human strength could do little against a superhuman and Blossom didn't move an inch.

"Robin, you should go. I'll wait for you here".

"W-what? But whyyy?"

"You are whining" she stated seriously.

"I am not! I was waiting for you!"

Blossom felt guilt starting to grow inside her chest. Could she allow herself just one dance?

"Come on, Blossom! It will be fun, you love dancing!" the pink puff threw a look at the dance floor. It was messy and full of people that were certainly not dancing.

"Blossom, look at me" the girl turned her head and focused her gaze on Robin"I want to spend a fun night with my best friend. It's only you and me, you are not a superhero here, you are my friend. What is holding you back?"

Blossom sighed and brought her free hand to massage her forehead.

Why didn't she want to dance? Because she had to make sure nothing bad would happen. It sounded ridiculous even in her mind and she didn't dare saying it out loud.

Had she come just to babysit Robin? She knew this wasn't the reason. She had come to celebrate that important occasion with her dear friend and she wanted to do it right.

"I have to take care of…"

"Me?" Robin laughed and Blossom couldn't hide her embarrassment, she didn't want it to come out like that.

"I tell you what I need: I need my best friend to remember she is seventeen and to fucking act like it" Blossom gasped at the swearing, but Robin didn't give her time to complain.

"Blossom, it will be fun, I promise" Robin knew her walls were slowly falling down. "See it as a birthday present…Please".

The smile that spread on the redhead lips confirmed Robin's prediction: Blossom had surrendered.

"Only because it's your birthday".

The brunette laughed and tightened her hand around Blossom's.

"Sure! I know you are dying to teach these folks how to dance".

She led the way towards the dance floor, this time encountering no opposition.

* * *

She felt good.

No, not just good.

They were jumping around without following what years of dance classes had taught them and she had never felt so right. Her hair had escaped her chignon and it was freely following her every move: she could feel it stick to her neck and caressing her bare shoulders. She was sure she looked like a mess.

Robin probably read her thoughts because she ran a hand in her wild mane before childishly sticking her tongue out.

"You look fine, don't worry!"

Dancing was her passion and, even though what she and Robin were doing couldn't really be called dancing, she was having fun.

Yes, fun! She had forgotten the last time she had felt so careless. For the time in months she didn't have a care in the world.

She had been laughing so hard that her stomach hurt.

She felt tipsy and incredibly happy.

Her movements were not controlled they just followed the music. She must have looked so different from the typical Blossom. She was also always so rigid, so controlled.

Dancing really did miracles.

"It's me and you" Robin had told her and it couldn't have been more true. They had been dancing together for hours now. In the dark, she was just another sweaty teenager.

Nobody was expecting anything from her and she felt free. She felt young.

She had been laughing at a clumsy attempt of her friend to jump on a small table that had found its way to dance floor when she felt two strong arms encircle her waist.

Her laugh immediately died and when she looked up she met Robin's thumbs up. Her friend winked at her and Blossom failed to hide a smile.

It was just a dance, she could give him one.

Maybe it was the tiredness or maybe it was the adrenaline that was running in her veins, but she didn't feel the need to deny him.

It wasn't like he could harm her or anything, she was the one with superpowers and that night Blossom not only felt young and free.

She felt sexy.

Every time her body started moving to the music, she became what she never allowed herself to be. Dancing was her escape from reality, that one thing that made all her worries secondary.

When she was dancing, she felt her body. Every part of it.

She was always so caught up by her studies and her responsibilities, that dancing had become her only way to release all the stress and all the toxins accumulated.

The mysterious guy must had taken her lack of reaction as a yes because he started to move following the rhythm of the new song.

As soon as he closed the gap between their bodies and pushed against her lower back, a shiver ran down her spine.

She could play that game too. Unlike him, she was real dancer.

She took his hands in her own and placed them on her hips before starting moving very slowly.

She heard him hiss under her touch, but she didn't have time to celebrate because, before she could realize what was happening, his hips started to move with her own.

Not a bad dancing partner, she had to admit, not bad at all.

They were moving together, as close to each other as possible and she was liking that proximity. It was a pleasant feeling and every time their bodies moved apart she died a little more inside waiting for the moment they would collide again.

Involuntarily she threw her head back to rest on his shoulder, raising her left hand to softly caress his face.

His skin was covered with sweat, as was his hair. His smell was intoxicating and it was mixing with her own.

She closed her eyes and focused all her attention on his hands travelling down her body.

Her fingers twirled in his hair, his hands on her waist, her back pressed against his chest…

The dance was erotic in its simplicity and what surprised Blossom the most was that she couldn't bring herself to feel guilty or uncomfortable about it.

She felt his lips on her neck and she reacted arching her back.

She should have had pushed him away, but she couldn't. There was only one thought in her head:  _Why not?_

She could always stop him later, once those wonderful kisses stopped being so alluring.

His mouth traveled along her neck to reach her jaw.

After a few wet kisses, she felt his hot breath on her ear. She shivered and, for a moment, she feared her knees would buckle.

Blossom didn't even know that she had been holding her breath.

"I see you have missed me,  _Pinky_ "

* * *

Her heart missed a beat.

Her eyes shot open.

She immediately stopped moving and his hold on her hips suddenly strengthened.

It couldn't be  _him_. He had left. Many years ago.

"Cat got your tongue,  _baby_?"

"Butch?" she whispered barely moving her lips, her head now straight and her body rigid as steel.

"I see you remember my name" he joked caressing her forearm.

Blossom tried to move, but his grip tightened trapping her against his body.

"If I were you, I wouldn't move. I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt your friend"

The blood in her vein froze, he wouldn't dare… right?

"Don't do anything stupid, Butch"

"Stupid like what you were going to do with me?"

A light blush spread on her cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from anger.

She was an idiot and she was never going to forgive herself. Her distraction had put her and all those people in a vulnerable position.

She didn't know how dangerous he had become, but something was telling her to expect the worst.

"I have to say I quite enjoy it and I know you did too"

Blossom felt the impulse to gag when his lips softly kissed her bare shoulder.

She couldn't stand any more teasing.

"If you want to fight this is not the place. Let's take it outside".

Blossom hands started to sweat as few seconds passed without a response. She didn't have the situation under control and she didn't like it.

Fortunately, her distress seemed to pass unnoticed, as all around her, people kept dancing.

"Eager, aren't we?" he grabbed her hand squeezing it a little too much. Blossom refrained from rolling her eyes, glad he decided to listen to her.

Before letting him lead the way, she threw a look in the crowd. Robin was dancing with a group of friend. She was safe.

She breathed a sigh of relief and followed Butch regaining some of her confidence.

That boy didn't know who he was messing with. He was going to realize that she was no joke.

* * *

If Butch was there, this meant one thing and one thing only: the boys were back.

Blossom thought about the last time they had met. How many years had passed? She was barely eleven the last time she and her sisters had to save the city from those villains.

After seven years, they were back… but why?

With no doubt they had chosen the perfect day for their comeback.

And there she thought that that day couldn't get any worse… how naive of her.

They had reached the back of the building, as soon as they were out, Blossom felt the fresh air crushing on her warm skin. Her long hair was stuck to her body and her tank top was soaked.

She was mess, but at the moment that was the last of her problems.

_His hand was still holding hers._

Blossom was silently gathering all her strength to break free, when he did the last thing she would have ever expected: he let go of her.

He turned and looked right into her eyes.

Shocked, she stared at him for long seconds, before finally taking a step back.

The alley was dark, illuminated only by the lampposts, but this didn't prevent her from finally see his face. He hadn't change much, his lips were still curled in his signature grin while his bright, green eyes, that reminded her so much of her sister, were looking at her with pure amusement.

His dark hair were longer than she remembered and, if possible, even messier. He was much taller now, she barely reached his shoulders and, she dared say, much bigger.

He was no longer the clumsy kid of her memories.

He had grown up, but she had too and she was not scared.

"What are you doing here?" she asked holding her gaze with firm voice.  
"A man can't say hi to some old friends?" he joked raising his hands in the air in sign of surrender.

"We are not friends Butch. We have never been".

"You are hurting me like that, baby!" he was already getting on her nerves, he had always had this power. With a few sentences he was able to infuriate her like nobody else.

"Were is Brick?" she asked knowing she would not get an easy answer.

Butch rolled his eyes before punching his own palm.

"This conversation is getting boring. It's time for some action"

Before she could open her mouth to reply, he attacked her.

She jumped in the air avoiding his punch.

"Wrong day to wear a skirt, eh?"

Blossom took no notice of his remark, she just rolled her eyes at his stupidity before dodging another hit. She anticipated one of his kick, grabbed his ankle and threw him against a dumpster.

She so didn't want to fight. She was physically drained, but this didn't mean she was going to make things easy for him.

Butch was up in less than a second, the impact had barely bruised him, the old dumpster instead was destroyed.

"Butch, please stop" she knew it was pointless. Butch was one of those people who never listened. Even as a kid, she had always preferred interacting with Brick, his leader.

A raspy laugh escaped his lips. He threw himself at her, but this time Blossom was barely able to avoid the punch that was directed at her face.

Her hair betrayed her and before she could move away he grabbed a lock pulling her towards him.

She screamed in anger and kicked him right in the chest. What a cheap shot taking her by the hair!

He seemed not to even register the kick. His hand was still tightly holding her hair. He pushed her against a building, right next to a window with pink flowers.

Blossom was hoping with all her heart nobody decided to water them in that precise moment. She didn't need any civilian involved.

Butch pushed his body against hers completely invading her personal space. His lips spread in the biggest smile she had yet seen on him.

"And here I thought you could put up some kind of a fight".

True, she was trapped between him and the building and true, her reflexes weren't the best, but she was exhausted and grabbing her by her hair had been a hit below the belt. Figuratively speaking, of course.

"Buttercup would have been so much better than you".

Blossom froze.

What had he just said?

"Next time go ruin Buttercup's night then, not mine" she raised her knees with all the strength she had left hitting right between his legs, where the sun didn't shine.

He wanted to play dirty? She could play dirty too.

As predicted he immediately left her hair to bring his hands where they were the most needed at the moment.

Blossom didn't wait any longer. She punched him right in the stomach and when his body hit the ground she was fast in sealing his hands and feet to the concrete with her ice breath.

"What the hell?" he screamed frenetically moving his eyes from the ice covering his limbs to Blossom and vice versa.

"A new power" she said with nonchalance while she was looking for something in the her clutch (that, miraculously, she still had on her) and when she found it Blossom kneeled next to him.

Butch who had been trying to break free immediately froze.

"What are you doing with that?" Blossom couldn't help but chuckle, she could see the fear in his eyes.

"What a baby, you are not going to feel anything!" she offered her fakest smile before stabbing him in the shoulder with the small syringe she had been holding in her hand.

Butch screamed, but Blossom paid him no attention.

She stood up, she put back the syringe back in her bag and finally melted the ice with her laser beams.

Butch immediately tried to stand up but Blossom blocked him, forcefully pushing him on the ground with her foot on his chest. Her heel sinking painfully in his shirt.

"What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Stop moving. You can't use your powers, it makes no sense wasting more energy" her face was impassive, almost bored.

"Fucking bitch, what did you do?" He was angry and if he would have had his powers, Blossom had to admit she wouldn't have felt very safe.

"Watch your mouth!" she pressed her foot and Butch hissed in pain "I guess you have the right to know what I injected in you. It's a new invention of the Professor, Buttercup uses it when she plays in the school team so that her powers do not affect her performance. We always have one with us in case we meet someone like you. Your powers will be back in a few hours".

Blossom watched the young man going through his internal struggle. He finally relaxed, sign that he believed her.

"Again, wrong day to weak a skirt" Butch anger had disappeared, he was back being his obnoxious self.

Blossom immediately removed her foot from his chest. This time she couldn't help her cheeks from flaring up.

"Leave and don't come back. I don't want any more trouble" without waiting any longer, Blossom started heading towards the back door of the club.

"This is how you leave your mortal enemy?"

The girl stopped her steps and slowly turned to face him.

"I wouldn't say mortal"

"You don't want to see me dead?" for the first time Blossom couldn't tell if he was teasing her or if he was serious.

A heavy silent fell between them, she was trying to decipher his expression and he was probably doing the same with her. Blossom was the one to break it.

"No, I don't.

She was ready to turn around and forget forever about their encounter when he spoke again.

"Why don't you bring me to jail?" he asked sounding genuinely curious.

"You didn't do anything wrong, but if you keep wasting my time like this I could change my mind and beat you up" she wanted to sound menacing, but all she obtained was an amused smile.

"You would never beat a defenseless man" he snickered but strangely he didn't annoy her.

"You have been away a long time. People change" she said hiding her own smile behind her serious tone.

"But you didn't"

"Weren't you way more stupid last time we met or am I wrong?"

Butch smiled, but this time it was different. It was a real, genuine, smile. No mockery nor arrogance and Blossom couldn't help but rewarding him with one of her own.

Unfortunately, before she could savored the moment, the silence was abruptly interrupted by the a beeping sound.

"What now?" she screamed in frustration reaching for the phone in her bag.

"Yes…Yes… Michigan Avenue you said? I am on my way!" she hang up and was about to leave when she remembered that the conversation wasn't over yet.

"I want you and your brothers out of MY town. I won't let you go next time"

"Promise?"

Blossom didn't appreciate the joke.

"I am serious, Butch"

"Me too,  _Pinky_ "

Blossom didn't answer, she threw him one last look before disappearing in a flash of pink light.


	2. I won't leave any doubt or stone unturned

 

That was what happened when she lowered her guard.

She knew he didn't fight back, at least not at 100% of his capabilities. Buttercup was much stronger than her, and if the counterpart bond had taught her something, this meant Butch was probably stronger than her as well.

He had teased her and she was well aware of that. Had he wanted to take her down, he could have done that in a minute. For what she remembered, he never really had any hesitation when hurting people. No, he had wanted to study her, probably under Brick's order.

Maybe she had shown too many of her cards, using her ice breath and all, but again, she had been tired and he had pulled her hair!

She kept her mind busy with these thoughts because they belonged to the part of the night she was comfortable to analyze.

The dance that had seen them closer than they had ever been… not so much.

If she started thinking about how his hands had travelled down her body, how his lips had sucked the skin of her neck or how her lower back kept rubbing his… ok, those thoughts needed to stop.

Bad, bad, bad.

That was bad.

The last couple of words they had talked to each other seemed… civil enough. She didn't remember having a real conversation with the green ruff before.

With Brick… yes. Long and exhausting debates that culminated with punches and kicks, with Butch no more than few words of warning from either side.

Why did Brick send him? Why not Boomer? What if they weren't together anymore?

No, she discarded that idea immediately. Butch was back and he sure didn't come back alone. You couldn't separate the Rowdyruff boys, you had to get the whole package, unfortunately.

What if Brick didn't know? Buttercup didn't always follow her orders.

She had to stop basing her judgment on Buttercup's habits. She and Butch were two different people. Did she act like Brick? Absolutely no! The counterpart bond could explain only so much.

What if they had just casually met? Butch had fought her, but it had been more of a joke for him anyway, nothing serious from his part.

Blossom was lost.

She grunted for the third time in a row, or maybe it was the fourth, she couldn't remember. She was extremely frustrated. Not only her weekend had been a disaster, she still had to give the bad news to her sisters and she wasn't really sure how she was supposed to introduce the matter.

"I was at Robin's party and I was dancing with a handso-, I mean, with a guy and surprise, surprise it turned out to be Butch!"

No. That definitively didn't work.

She heard the front door opening sign that one of her sisters was home, from the happy singing it was surely Bubbles. Blossom liked hearing her sing. Bubbles was always doing it, she would take the last word that came out from your mouth and she would start singing a song related to it, and Blossom loved it. It was so "Bubbles" and even if sometimes it could get a little annoying, especially when she was trying to concentrate on the road (Blossom was a horrible driver) or on her homework, she would have never asked her to stop.

When Bubbles wasn't singing, it was a sign that she was unhappy. Blossom and Buttercup would look at each other and start singing at her place, pretending to forget all the lyrics or changing them in the most ridiculous ways, until Bubbles was forced to intervene to stop them from torturing like that all her favorite songs.

"I'm home!"

She took a deep breath and tried to recompose herself. She had been staring at the wall in front of her for the last fifteen minutes trying to find the right way to deliver the news. She just had to do it.

She floated to the entrance and she was immediately welcomed by a crushing hug.

"I've missed you! I am so sorry I've left you all alone, I've heard it has been a tough weekend!"

"You have no idea! I've missed you too!" Blossom smiled softly and hugged her sister back. All the anger for having being left alone had disappear hours before, it was just the stress talking at the time.

Bubbles was good at reading people emotions and sensing that something was wrong, she prolonged the hug a little longer.

"Oh please, we have been gone for less than three days!" the cynical comment of the last powerpuff made both of them giggled. A just arrived Buttercup closed the door with a slight kick before looking at her sisters with a childish grin.

"Bubbles I think Buttercup is jealous, she must feel lonely" Blossom winked at the blue powerpuff and Bubbles nodded feigning concern.

"Blossom I was thinking the same thing" Buttercup looked at them trying to suppress her laughter. Her sisters were such dorks.

Both of them smiled deviously before running to both side of the girl. They hugged her with all their inhuman strength leaving her no way to escape.

"You are crushing me!" her screams where muffled and she could no longer hide her amusement.

"It's the power of love!" sang Bubbles.

"You have to say it Buttercup!"

"Ok! Ok! I've missed you too, now let me breathe!" the blue and the pink powerpuffs held her a little bit longer before finally realising her. Buttercup started to theatrically gasping for air while both of their sisters looked at her shaking their heads.

"It gets harder and harder to make her say that"

"Yes, and this time it was a torture for my nose. Butters you stink"

"Oh, I am sorry. The concert was a little rough. I'am going to take a shower" Buttercup was already halfway up the stairs.

"But I have to tell you about my competition!" Bubbles floated towards the green puff whining about how impatient she was to share her weekend.  
"Girls, the shower can wait. I have a very important thing to tell you" both her sisters stopped arguing and looked down at Blossom.

"Oh my god. Blossom… are you pregnant?"

"W-what?" well, that didn't go as planned. Blossom looked at her sister as if she had just grown a second head. What was Bubbles thinking?

"Well, that's the exact same sentence that they use on sixteen-and-pregnant to deliver the news of the baby!"  
"Bubbles tell me again, why do we allow you to watch TV?"

"It's a very informative show FYI and you always watch it with me!"

Buttercup and Bubbles started once again arguing and Blossom understood that if she wanted to get rid of that weight in her chest she just had to spit the words, otherwise it could have taken forever with all those interruptions.  
"Girls! No! I'm not pregnant, I'm not sixteen and my announcement doesn't involve my uterus"

"Good" Buttercup snickered.

"The Rowdyruff boys are back"

"Not so good".

 

* * *

 

"She is hot as fuck".

"I asked if you kept an eye on her, not how she looked" a guy with a red baseball cap pointed out while his expression remained impassive.

"More than an eye, boss" he laughed a little, but Brick didn't look too pleased.

"You had one fucking thing to do. Keep an eye on the only powerpuff in town without blowing our cover and you screw it Butch!"

Butch shrugged and this only added fuel to Brick's anger.

"Relax! You would have done the same. She was wearing this skimpy tank top that complet–"

"Enough! Don't you understand? Now they know we are here!"

Boomer temporarily removed his eyes from the television screen to look at his brother.

"And?" he asked with voice full of boredom.

"This complicates things"

"How much?" it was weird for Boomer to show interest. He wasn't stupid, never had been, but he never really cared much for Brick's plans and calculations. He lived life in a much simpler way.

"It depends on how much we give them a reason to believe we are up to something, right Butch?"

The green ruff threw both his hands in the air, in a clear sign of surrender.

"Listen, I don't understand what you want me to do"

"We don't need them to interfere" Brick said each word as slow as he could to clearly send that message to both of his brothers.

"You are overthinking this, as always"

"And you are not thinking enough"

"As always" Butch added.

Brick didn't laugh, but a faint smile spread on his lips before he left the room.

* * *

 

A week had passed from that night at the club.

Most importantly, the Rowdyruff boys were nowhere in sight.

If she wouldn’t have been so sure about her mental state, Blossom could have sworn to have dreamed the whole thing. 

That and the fact that Robin kept asking about the guy of the night of the party. Of course, she was clever enough to not disclose the fact that Butch and the “sexy hunk” – as Robin and her sisters started to call him – were the same person. 

Not that she was complaining. She had already enough on her plate without trying to play detective with the Rowdyruffs. 

It just didn’t make sense. Why had Butch decided to show up out of nowhere, and then disappear as nothing had happened? 

Why now after all those years? Why him alone? She had so many questions. It was becoming hard to concentrate on anything else. She feared she was becoming slightly paranoid. She could see him everywhere: when she was buying groceries, at the movie theatre, even during her dance classes. While he was never there, she couldn’t shake off that weird feeling you get when someone is observing you.

She was floating towards home a few inches from the ground. Bubbles and Buttercup were on patrol to make up for the previous weekend, and she was infinitely grateful for that. 

She had spent the first days after the accident in alarm, ready to be attacked at any moment. It was slowly getting better and she decided that that night, she would try to relax.

Her day had been exhausting. She had spent the majority of the morning in an incredibly long meeting on safety measures and security issues, where men triple her age had talked for hours, never allowing her to speak, interrupting her whenever possible. Blossom felt incredibly frustrated. 

She had then had the pleasure of carrying out a one to one interview with a cheap magazine that had pestered her for months. It was called “Girl talk” and they had been able to ask more than twenty different questions about nothing, really. All of them had been incredibly sexist or downright stupid. From “what do you eat to stay in shape?” to “what are you looking for in your next man?”. She was still wondering how high she must had been to accept that interview. 

She was daydreaming about the bath full of bubbles that was waiting for her at home. She would light some candles and throw in one her favorite bath bombs. She almost shivered in anticipation. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of steps coming right behind her. It wasn’t unusual for her to notice even the smallest things. You could never be too careful and while it was probably an innocent passerby, she decided to accelerate a bit. 

Weirdly enough, the steps behind her became faster. Her suspicion started to grow and her superhero training started to kick in. 

She stopped abruptly, and as predicted they stopped.

She took a few tentative steps and like a charm, the person behind her started to walk again.

It was becoming strangely worrying. She sighed, this creeper had decided to mess with the wrong girl at the wrong time. Why criminals never knew when to commit a crime? Why they always had to choose the worst moments? Couldn’t they be a little be more considerate about her agenda?

She was walking casually now, the ever present sound of those steps becoming stronger as the person was getting closer. Blossom waited up until the last moment, when he couldn’t have been more than a few inches away, to turn and face him.

“I don’t know what game you are playing, but I don-” her words died in her throat. She was alone. The suburban street completely empty. She almost wanted to raise her hand and wave it in the air to make sure there was nobody there.

“Slightly paranoid? How about batshit crazy” she muttered to herself. 

She was ready to turn around and fly back home when a piece of paper floated in front of her before reaching the ground. Curious, she picked it up and realized it was the wrapping of some sort of candy. 

She already knew what, or better who, was expecting her when she looked up in the sky. 

“Fancy a sweet?” 

She squeezed the candy wrapper strong in her hand. Butch was sat lazily above her head, a bag of candies in his hands. 

She should have known. Who else could have had such an awful timing? 

“I was wondering when you would show up again” while her voice was firm and did not show any sign of discomfort, her heart beat had strangely picked up, sign that he was making her nervous. 

“I’ve missed you too, babe” he popped a new candy in his mouth, letting another wrapper fall on the ground. Blossom was fast to pick it up.

“There are bins for these!” and as to support her words, she threw the piece of paper in a garbage can close by “Why are you here?” she asked floating to his level to watch him in the eyes, arms on her hips already glowing in pink. 

“Relax, pinky, I don’t want to fight” Butch shrugged and stretched his arms in the air. Blossom observed his every move, he was so different and yet he was still the same. It was hard to look at him now, a grown boy, a man, without seeing glimpses of the little kid he had been. 

It was such a pity. She was certainly in the mood for a fight, especially after him calling her babe.

“I was bored” he said simply getting closer to her. She involuntarily backed off and a satisfied smirk appeared on his face.

She hated that situation for the simple reason she didn’t know what to do. He yet had to attack her, so she couldn’t really fight him without a reason. Plus, he wasn’t doing anything wrong at the moment, nor there was evidence he had something wrong in the past couple of days. She would have known; she was the city vigilante after all.

Why wasn’t Brick there? Why did Butch decided to bother her and not… Buttercup? Not that she would wish that for her sister, but he wasn’t her counterpart and she didn’t know how to handle him. Not having the slightest idea of what to do didn’t sit well with Blossom. 

She took a second to collect her thoughts. The conclusion was simple. Butch didn’t do anything wrong (yet), hence there was no reason for them to keep suffering the company one of the other. 

“If you are not here to tell me what the hell you are doing in my city, then you are wasting my time”.

She gently landed on the ground and she simply started to head back home. Butch was soon beside her, on the ground, finally walking.

“Where are we going?” he said putting both of his hands in his pocket.

“I am going home; you are going to leave me alone” she said avoiding to look at him.

“But it’s Friday night, Pinky!”

“Don’t call me that!” she had wanted to ignore him, but that comeback had slipped her lips before she could realize it. Butch smirked and she knew she had just fallen in one of his attempts to fluster her. 

“First a long-ass meeting at the town council, then another meeting with the press. After that? Should I guess? Straight home to finish your homework, a fast dinner, an incredibly long bath and then straight to bed not before having checked the town situation with your sisters. I know you had a long day but come one, Puff!” he said with exasperation, his hands looking frantically for something in the pocket of his jacket. 

He seemed to have found what he was looking for, she heard the click of a lighter and the strong smell of smoke invaded her nostrils.

She stopped dead in her tracks and turn to face him. 

“You… how do you know?” she whispered menacingly “So you have been following me! You, creepy stalker!” her words were now full on screams. 

“First of all, I am not creepy” he replied, a puff of smoke coming out of his mouth “Second, yeah, I happened to follow you around sometimes, but there is so little to do in this town, you can’t really blam-” Butch was now pressed against a wall, his feet barely touching the ground where his cigarette was resting forgotten. 

The pink puff had him by the collar of his shirt. Her eyes were glowing pink and her free hand was ready to punch him, closed in a fist a few inches away from his face. 

“Why are you spying on me? What are you plotting?” she hissed. 

“Hey, hey, hey” he threw both of his arm in the air in sign of surrender “Let’s calm down here”.

“Butch” she said his name slowly, it was a warning, she was losing her patience “My day has indeed been long, you can understand why I have little, if not zero, tolerance for whatever you are trying to do”.

Usually it was very difficult to work her up, she was calm and collected, most of the times at least. However, her body and mind were on alert and they had been that way for the majority of the past week. Plus, she had bitten her tongue the whole day not to offend anybody and maintain the image of the perfect little girl, woman, whatever, with him she could be a little rougher. 

“Listen, _Blossom_ ” her name on his tongue sounded so different that for a moment she lost the grip on his collar. 

“I don’t know if you have noticed, but there isn’t much to do in this town. Correction, there isn’t much to do in this town that is legal and won’t put in me in trouble. You are a decent looking girl and I thought…”

“You thought?” she asked, ignoring his weird attempt to compliment her.

“I thought we could repeat what happened the other night” he smiled and it was such an innocent smile. 

No wait, innocent was the wrong word, it was implying so many things that really were anything but innocent, but there wasn’t any deception, any attempt to pursue an evil master plan behind it. It was just a flirty smile.

It was up to Blossom to decide which one was worst: your enemy deceiving you or your enemy deciding to flirt with you.

“You mean you pulling my hair?” she provided, reminding him that that night had been anything but pleasant. 

“If that’s what turns you on” yes, that smile was anything but innocent.

Blossom couldn’t help but blushing at the audacity. She left his collar as if she was burnt, her anger mixing with embarrassment.

Butch almost fell to the ground, but he was quick to recompose himself.

“Even though I enjoyed the view I was getting up under your skirt when you froze me to the ground, I was thinking we could repeat the other part of the night”.

“Y-you mean d-dancing?” she was stuttering now? Great, could that day get any worse? 

“Are you up for it?” he asked nonchalantly, as if he had just asked what time it was.

It took a few seconds for Blossom to elaborate what he had just said. 

“You are asking me out” she muttered, more to herself that for him to hear. Butch took his time to light a new cigarette and then looked at her through a new blow of smoke.

“Yeah, why not?” Blossom was now looking at him as if he had just grown a second head “Listen, Pinky, I was just trying to have some fun, Brick doesn’t even know I am here”.

At the mention of that name, Blossom was once again in superhero mode. 

“Brick? Where is he? He is in Townsville?” 

“Here we go…” he took a long puff, leaning on the wall he was previously pushed against. 

“Why did he send you? What does he have in mind? I should have known he was behind all of this!” Blossom was now pacing back and forward. Butch completely forgotten. When he stepped in front of her and blew a considerable amount of smoke in her face, she was almost surprised to see him still there.

“For your information, I am my own person. Brick doesn’t control me. I just wanted to hang out, but apparently you are as boring as this town” he jumped in the air and looked down at her.

“I am not boring” she said lamely, mentally kicking herself for such a lousy comeback. 

“Tell me one thing you did today which is worth doing again tomorrow” he asked genuinely curious. 

“Butch, I am exhausted I really have no time for all of this” she waved her hands in the space between them. The signs of bad headache slowly rising. 

Silence, she groaned covering her face with both of her hands, when she looked at him, he was staring at her with a new intensity, his traditional smirk back on his lips. 

“What if, I don’t know, I made your agenda a bit lighter?” 

“Butch, what do you mean?” he was already up in the air “Butch?”.

“Bye Pinky, it was a pleasure”.

“Butch! Where are you going, you haven’t answer my question!” she screamed.

“You’ll see!” he gave her a half-assed military salute and disappeared in a flash of green. 

 

* * *

“He did what?” Buttercup screams were not helping her headache. She reached the kitchen, both of her sisters following her. 

“Please Buttercup, the Professor is sleeping, could you keep it down?” she whispered while filling the kettle. She needed a tea if she wanted to survive the night. What was her teacher always telling her? A cup of tea made everything better? She really did hope so. 

It wasn’t too late when her sisters had got back home. Blossom had been thinking about a way to break the news to them for the past couple of hours, she had thought about the right words to say, which part to skip and how to minimize the whole thing. 

Butch had to stop showing up like that, she really didn’t enjoy spending her nights deciding what was appropriate sharing with her sisters and what not.

Even worse, as soon as she had seen Buttercup and Bubbles come into the house, her mind had gone blank.

“Hey, Bloss. What’s up?” Buttercup had been sipping a chocolate milkshake.

“He asked me out” she had blurted out, red cheeks and short breath.

“Bloss, what are you talking about?”

“Butch asked me out”.

A moment later, Buttercup’s milkshake had been all over the floor. 

They were now sitting in the kitchen, in the middle of the night, all sipping silently their tea after having listened to Blossom’s story.

Bubbles was the first to break the silence.

“He likes you” she suggested smiling. While Buttercup was still fighting the urge to jump on her feet and track Butch down, Bubbles seemed to be finding the whole situation incredibly amusing.

“What?” Buttercup screamed hitting the table with both hands, Blossom was a little bit more collected but equally surprised. 

“Buttercup, keep it down. Bubbles, don’t be ridiculous! They are obviously up to something; I just don’t understand why Brick sent Butch out of all of them”

“Maybe he didn’t. Maybe Butch came on his own because he likes you” she repeated slowly, as if she was testing uncharted waters. 

“Bubbles would you stop, please” Bubbles stayed silent, she took another sip of tea, smiling knowingly.

“Yeah, Bubs, the only idea makes me wanna throw up” Buttercup gagged theatrically and Blossom, for once, agreed with her.

They remained silent for a few seconds, until Blossom remembered the last part of the conversation with the green Ruff.

“Then the weirdest thing happened…” she murmured, her voice soft and her mind somewhere else.

“Weirder than him asking you out?”

“He said he was going to free up my agenda, what does that mean?”

“I guess we just have to wait and see” Bubbles giggled and Blossom, for a moment, wished she could be as optimistic as her sister for once. 

 


	3. I've got a collar full of chemistry from your company

 

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Blossom Utonium was lazily reading what was slowly becoming one of her favorite books under the shade of a big oak at the park.

She finished scanning the last page, waited a moment to enjoy that very familiar feeling of emptiness you get when finishing a book, and finally closed it.

She observed the hard cover for a few seconds, tracing the title with her index finger. She was feeling nostalgic and slightly drowsy, she had been reading that book non-stop for the past three hours and now it was over.

It was as if an entire alternative universe had just disappeared in front of her eyes.

She stretched lazily, enjoying the soft grass on her bare legs. When was the last time she had three complete hours to herself? Blossom couldn't remember. She smiled contently, looking at the sky through the net of leaves and branches that were swinging above her head.

She really couldn't remember the last time the city had been so quiet.

She was feeling so relaxed, so serene, so…

"Fuck" she muttered.

For a moment she almost had the impulse to cover her very own mouth for the vulgarity.

If Butch was behind all of that, she would have found out pretty soon.

 

* * *

 

Blossom's day off had soon been replaced by her constant need to have everything under control. She was now walking in one of the nastiest neighborhood of the city. She didn't come often to that part of town and she sure didn't come alone when she did.

She was wearing a black baseball cap and sunglasses to cover a bit her appearance. She wasn't exactly well received in the area, no apple pie and welcome streamers for her there.

She was walking fast, knowing where to go. When she reached her destination, she sighed and scrolled her head.

_Bad guys were just so predictable._

Ace and his gang had been meeting in that alley as long as she could remember. This made them incredibly easy to find, which came in handy, especially when information was needed.

She entered the alley with no hesitation, her steps signaling her arrival to the boys hanging at the end of the street.

They immediately stopped talking and assumed a defense position. Even with her disguise, she was a new face and those neighborhoods didn't really do well with new faces.

Only Ace, the self-proclaimed leader of the pack, didn't move. He remained leaned on the wall, showing no sign of surprise of seeing her there.

"Princess, this is no place for a little girl like ya" came his snarky remark. He lowered his gaze to take a better look at her and chuckled "Go back to daddy… unless you were looking for a new one".

His gang erupted in laughter and Blossom barely suppressed a disgusted grunt.

"Interesting. Does Buttercup know you offer this service?".

He almost fell to the ground losing his balance. He took a whole lot of time to recompose himself, unable to accept the fact that the leader of the Powerpuffs was now standing in that sketchy alley.

"Blossom?" he muttered, more to convince himself that to actually get an answer.

"And here I thought you only called me princess" she said, a dangerous smirk on her lips. She enjoyed ruffling him up more than she had expected.

The rest of Gangreen Gang was obviously waiting for an order on what to do, he quickly dismissed them with a gesture of the hand and a few seconds later they were alone.

"Well…" he paused, on his face a smile equally as dangerous "Long time no see".

"Please, I threw Lil' Arturo in jail last month!"

"As I said, long time no see"

Blossom rolled her eyes and Ace let out a brief laugh.

She could almost say that she felt comfortable in his presence. Ace and his friends had been bad guys once, and maybe their activities still weren't perfectly legal, but they were no threat. They were little punks, not hurting anybody. The Powerpuffs, especially Buttercup, had grown into knowing them and they had turned out to be very useful connection during the years.

Blossom hoped he could help her in that particular situation as well. If her suspects were right, and something had actually happened, Ace would have known. Nothing happened without him noticing.

"So, to what do I owe this honor? Remember I am busy man" surprise was slowly fading from his features and it was replaced by pure curiosity, and Blossom was reminded of the reason of her visit.

"Busy smoking weed next to a dumpster?"

"Want some?"

"I leave those delightful activities to my sister" she straightened her back and looked him right in the eyes, if he would have lied, she would have known.

"What is going on?" she asked enunciating every single word.

"What are you talking about?" he said with the same tone mocking her.

"Buttercup wouldn't be happy knowing you are committing crimes again" she knew bringing up her sister was a dirty trick, but she needed answers.

"What? I haven't done anything!" as predicted Ace flared up, his hands in the air.

"And so are all of you!" she almost screamed to match his voice and she took a step towards him.

"Townsville has been incredibly quiet! No single crime was committed in the last seven days. I want to know why" she was as serious as one could be, the lightness of their previous conversation forgotten.

He was silent for a long moment. His eyes reading her face, trying to understand what the hell was wrong with her.

"You are a weird superhero" he finally said after a long internal debate "Isn't it better this way?".

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I love it" she whispered, a smile accompanying her words. For a second, everything about her was  _soft_ , feminine, relaxed.

Only for a second.

"But it is not right. So, tell me what you know".

Ace pinched the brick of his nose as if she was asking him to recall something happened in a distant past.

" _I guessed that's what all that smokes does to you"_  she thought observing him silently.

"Listen, Princess. It was this guy, he came to the pub and terrorized everybody. He was blathering something about a crime break. He said he would personally punish anybody who tried to do something. He was a freak, he was glowing green for fuck sake!" he bit his tongue at those words and threw an apologetic look at Blossom.

"What else did he say?" she ignored his not so subtle insult. Who was he to call her freak? His skin was green!

"Oh, you are gonna love this. I specifically remember him saying that he, unlike the famous Powerpuff girls, was no joke and that he had no remorse in completely annihilating whoever decided to cross him".

Silence.

" _What if, I don't know, I made your agenda a bit lighter?"_

The noises coming from a television of an apartment nearby the only sound between them.

Now, it all made sense.

Blossom took another dangerous step towards Ace.

"That's what he said?" her words were slow, her eyes fixed on him.

He nodded.

"And all of you guys decided to stay low?"

He nodded again.

Blossom looked him deadly in the eyes. She took a deep breath and then decided it was not enough.

She punched him right in the shoulder.

"What the hell?!" he screamed rubbing vigorously where she had hit him, not so strong to hurt him, but enough to bring her immense satisfaction.

"Man, I hate you! We have been fighting crimes all of these years and you stop because a guy shows up and tells you to?!" she threw both of her arms in the air and let out a few exasperated and unladylike grunts.

"What can I say, he was pretty convincing".

She rolled her eyes still unable to wrap her head around what he had just told her. She was in the air less than a second later.

"Thanks Ace, I guess"

"Whatever" he was already retreating to the very end of the alley, hand still on his shoulder, when Blossom called him.

"One last thing. You forgot this at our place" she looked for something in her pocket, and a second later she threw him his trademark shades with a wink.

"Just be more careful, you know the Professor doesn't like you" she disappeared in the sky followed by pink light.

 

* * *

 

She was scanning the city looking for him.

If somebody would have told her a month ago that she would be up in the sky for more than two hours looking for one of the Rowdyruff boys she would have probably escorted him to the closest mental facility.

How the tables had turned… not only she was wasting precious time looking for the last person on the planet she wanted to have a conversation with, she was doing it so she could gently ask him to stop terrorizing the other bad guys and let them do their… _stuff_ , so she could do her job properly.

When she spotted him she almost didn't stopped. It took a second for her brain to send the message to her body. She flew back a few meters and, yes, the guy sat on the edge of that roughly-looking abandoned building at the outskirt of town was indeed Butch.

He was looking at the horizon, his legs swinging lazily in the air and his back turned to her.

She took a very deep breath, prepared herself mentally for an exhausting conversation that would have brought to nowhere, and then she landed a few steps behind him.

She knew he had heard her, super hearing and all of that, but he didn't budge.

"Butch" she stated simply.

She saw him stretching, taking his time before turning just his face to look at her.

"Finally!" he exclaimed with a sigh, his smirk was almost a full smile and for a moment Blossom thought he looked genuinely happy to see her.

She stayed silent secretly shocked at that thought and Butch seemed to interpret her stillness as a request for explanation. He finally stood up, hands in his pocket.

He was wearing black jeans and old dark green hoodie. He looked harmless, almost as a normal teenage boy.

"How dare you interfere with my work?" she finally said, every word as serious as possible, trying to convey all the anger she had been building up.

"Boomer and I had a bet going. He said you were gonna kick my ass in less than three days. I told him you lacked so many hours of sleep, you would have probably lied to yourself as long as possible" if his smirk had been a smile, it was now back to be that annoying mocking expression she was starting to hate.

"Guess I won, uh".

He talked as if he was speaking about peanuts, something unimportant, not her actual life. As if all of this was a joke. Her work, her duties… something he could manipulate as he wanted. He even had bet on it.

At that realization, Blossom snapped.

She threw herself at him.

Hard.

Her fist collided with his face in all his force and Butch was pushed to the ground several meters away. His lip now cut and that smirk finally off his face.

"They listened more to me, didn't they? That's what it is all about" he laughed, realization crossing his face.

Blossom didn't flinch. She stayed immobile, her eyes on Butch.

"The superhero who starts a fight against an innocent man… what did I exactly miss all these years?"  
He wiped his mouth and looked at her with an amused expression, mischief in his eyes.

"Thank God, I am not that innocent".

Next thing she knew, he was against her, and Blossom for a second was relieved. She had just wanted an excuse to throw herself at him, to punch him, kick him, punish him for living life so carelessly, so obvious to the consequences of his actions.

So she did, she punched him once, twice, again and again.

Her attacks always anticipated and stopped, his stupid smirk back on his face. He was just mocking her and this only accentuated her anger.

Her fist glowed pink, she threw herself in one final attack. Butch was barely able to grab her wrist but her strength surprised him. They both weren't prepared for how powerful that last punch had been. Blossom's body lost his balance and crashed against Butch, pushing him on the ground, before following him down.

They both took a moment to realize what had just happened. She blinked twice, unable to even move a muscle. Butch seemed as shocked as her, his eyes wide open and his lips parted, somewhere there a jock forgotten.

The air was perfectly still, their breath erratic, Butch's face incredibly close to hers.

Blossom suddenly tried to stand up, in an attempt to end a situation that should have never been there in the first place, but to her surprise he blocked her, her wrist still wrapped in his hand.

"I don't have time for your little games" she sputtered, her face really too close to his for her comfort.

"Oh, Blossom" a new spark on his face, she would really never get used hearing him saying her name, "But I like playing with you so much".

Butch acted fast, he grabbed both of her arms and in a quick, swift movement, he turned them around. She was now on the ground and he sat on her stomach, his knees at either side of her hips.

"Get off!" she almost screamed, her face red with anger.

"What other games do you know, Pinky?" his voice deep and raspy, dripping with amusement and excitement. He was having fun, Blossom realized, and he was – once again –  _flirting_  with her.

Blossom was lost, words unable to leave her throat. All the anger dissipating to leave space to confusion and a big lump of anxiety in her chest.

How the hell did they go from fighting to  _that?_

It was now painfully clear he was not just a villain.

He was a villain teenage boy, and said boy was straddling her.

Yes, maybe she had allowed him to much leeway that night at the club, but there were boundaries Butch couldn't cross. She was Blossom Utonium, she wouldn't fall for cheap flirting and she definitely would not welcome unsolicited attentions.

"How about getting a hint?" she whispered deadly.

She was one second away to push him away from her, eyes ready to shot laser beams at him, when he did the last thing she would ever have expected him to do.

He stood up. Not only that, he offered her his hand to help her on her feet.

"I don't need your help" she said, referring to much more than his outstretched hand "I can do this alone. No matter what all of you believe".

"All of us?"

Blossom fist was back in the air. She just wanted to attack him once last time. She had already said too much, she didn't need that confuse look. The look of someone who was trying to understand, to help her once again.

But it was a weak hit, barely intended, an afterthought of the fight that had seen them involved a few minutes before.

This time Butch just let her fist hit his open palm.

Blossom went again, punch after punch. Butch blocked each one of them and that was okay. She didn't really want to harm him anyway. Although, this time there was no mockery from his part, just a puzzled look and the knowledge that that was the part he had to play.

The attacks got weaker, slower, until there were no more. Until, out of breath, she found herself on the very edge of that building where she had found him, Butch next to her.

They sat in silence for a very long time, the sun slowly setting, the pink in the sky mixing with darkness. She had to admit it wasn't an uncomfortable silent. That day she had found good company in all the wrong persons.

"I am perfectly capable of handling this city by myself" she whispered breaking the silence. Her voice softer than she intended.

Butch took a few second to answer, his voice equally soft.

"Oh believe me Pinky, I know" he looked for her eyes and Blossom found herself doing the same because she turned her head towards him at the exact moment he did the same.

"I just think you  _shouldn't_ ".

There it was, his smile. No smirk, no raised eyebrow, no mockery. Just a small, barely there, smile with a hint of resignation.

She looked away, eyes again on the horizon.

Silence returned and lulled them for another few moments, expertly hatching the words that were to come.

"I am so tired of people underestimating me. You know I haven't muttered a word in the last two council meetings?" she asked, a sad smile on her lips "Not that I didn't have anything to say, I had plenty, they just didn't let me…".

She slowly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It was a warm summer evening, but a pleasant breeze was playing with her hair and the edge of her skirt.

"Not to talk about that awful interview".

"Yeah, I read it" Butch commented and Blossom for a second wanted to sink through the floor.

"You read?"

Butch threw her a deadpan look and Blossom was fast to apologize.

"I didn't mean it like  _that_ " she quickly added. She was aware he knew how to read, she was just surprise he did at all.

"Whatever… yes, that interview was pretty terrible" Blossom was glad he had decided to let go her unintended insult.

"You know what they asked me after my sister and I had defeated probably the biggest monster Townsville had ever seen? I was dead tired, my face covered with cuts, smelling like a rotten fish, hair full of slimy, disgusting entrails and-"

"Ok, I got the picture"

"Well, this reporter comes up to me and I was preparing myself, you know, for some badass answer. Something like "there is a superhero inside all of us" or "this is our city, protecting it its our duty"… you know superhero stuff, right?" she was sure Butch must have been deadly bored with her story, but when she looked at him for confirmation, she found him staring at her attentively, a curios look on his face.

She cleared her throat, trying to hide her surprise and got back to the story.

"So, yes, he comes up and says: Blossom, we all want to know! Why are you still single? Are guys intimidated by you?".

She buried her face in her hands, next to her Butch burst into laughter.

"It was humiliating! Who the hell ask that? Do you think superman ever got that question?" Butch laughs only grew louder and Blossom suddenly found herself with a much lighter heart and a smile of her own fighting to come out. She punched him weakly on the shoulder and Butch's snickers grew weaker, starting anew a couple of times, before dying.

"I almost broke his camera" Blossom concluded. Her head emptier, her chest freer.

"So, you understand now how what happened today was mortifying. You showed up out of nowhere and a bunch of rotten criminals decided to listen to you!" she finally confessed, experimenting a dangerous type of freedom in telling him exactly what she was thinking.

They were silent once again and Blossom asked herself if any of that conversation made sense to him. Maybe she was talking about a reality so different from his that he could not be able to understand it.

When he broke the silent, she understood he had his own reality to worry about.

"It's because they fear me… you don't want to earn your respect through fear" there was something different in his voice. It was so different from usual. He was incredibly serious, but there had been a hint of … sadness? Resignation? Regret? It was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Butch was back at being his overconfident self.

"And all those other guys, they are just dumb old farts. Who cares about them".

She rewarded him a kind laugh.

Their shoulders were barely brushing, her hair freely dancing to the wind behind her.

"You know… You half quoted Britney Spears earlier during our fight"

"I realized my mistake as soon as those words had left my mouth"

She laughed again, the sun now so low it was touching the horizon.

"Butch?"

"Yes, Pinky?"

"You were definitely more stupid as kid"

He jumped in the void, in what, for any other person, would have been a sure fall to death. He reappeared a few seconds later, floating in front of her, a lazy smile on his lips.

"Why?" she asked, finally looking him in the face after a whole conversation told to the sky.

He knew exactly what she was referring to.

"I have fun with you" he stated simply.

"You do?" she sounded more surprised that she had wanted.

"I-" a vibrating noise interrupted them, what Butch had wanted to say was forgotten on his lips.

He grabbed his phone, quickly read the screen and then looked up again.

"Gotta go"

"I want everything back to normal" it was an order, but there was also a goodbye behind those words.

He laughed and turned ready to leave, but before speeding away he turned again, as if he had forgotten something.

"Hey Pinky, you sure don't intimidate me" and with a wink, he disappeared in flash of green light.

 

* * *

 

"Where have you been?"

Buttercup's words sounded too much like a reproach for her liking.

She purposely ignored her sister while looking for something to eat in the fridge. She had completely lost sense of time that afternoon, it was well past nine when she got home. She was feeling incredibly dizzy as if that whole day had been a hallucination.

Buttercup poked her left arm and Blossom looked down: she was handing her a plate full of food. She accepted it with a smile, Buttercup had probably saved that just for her. Her sister wasn't a big fan of cuddles or love declaration, but she knew how to show affection and did it in thousands of ways.

"We were just worried, Bloss" Bubbles supplied, all of the three now sat at the table "You know, with everything weird that is happening… also we think that the hotline isn't working properly"

"It was Butch" she simply stated, she really didn't want to explain the details. The whole story sounded absurd even to her ears.

"He broke the hotline…?"

"No, he…He freed up my agenda" she concluded unable to find the right words. She took the first bite of the food Buttercup had presented her and she almost melted for how good it was. She closed her eyes to enjoy it fully and when she opened them again, both Bubbles and Buttercup were looking at her, confusion evident on their faces.

"Buttercup did you cook this? It's amazing" she provided, taking another big bite.

"This is all Butch's fault…or merit?" Bubbles attempted, interpreting what Blossom had just said.

"Yes, Ace told me Butch showed up and established a crime break or something like that"

"And they listened to him?" Buttercup hand was already closed in a fist.

"Don't get me started on that"

"Ace… that motherfucker, next time I see him I am going to remind him who is charge in this city" Blossom rolled her eyes, she really didn't enjoy her sister's profanities, but she couldn't blame her.

She had been as angry as her a few hours before, maybe even angrier. The only reason she was so zen about the whole situation now was that she had been able to release all her frustration in a way or another. She would have never admitted it, but the fight with Butch had definitely helped.

Speaking of Butch…

"It's ok, I talked to Butch. Everything will be normal again" she tried to say those words as casually as possible, as if she had been talking about the weather. She really didn't want to give too much importance to the matter, above all she didn't want to listen to her sisters' worries and reproaches. She already knew that what she had done that afternoon had been dangerous. She went seeking for someone much stronger than her alone, when she could have called them.

Telling them she was sure Butch would have not had hurt her, really did little to support her reasons. How could she know that for certain?

It was just guts' feelings. She remembered him from when they had been little, she remembered that light that would sparkle in his eyes before losing control. She had yet to see that light in him this time around.

Both Bubbles and Buttercup stayed silent, the air in the kitchen extremely heavy.

It was Bubbles that broke the silence, it was always Bubbles.

"You were with Butch?" she said softly, her voice sweet and low. No accusation from her part.

"Yeah I-"

"For the whole afternoon?" Buttercup interrupted her.

"Well, yes, but we…I mean, I-"

"Bubbles tell her" Buttercup and Bubbles exchanged a look and Blossom suddenly knew she was not going to like what was coming next.

"Blossom, listen. Buttercup and I came up with a plan" Bubbles had always been the more emphatic one out of the three. It was only natural she would be the one to break out the news.

"You are not going to like it, sis"

"So, Buttercup and I tried to brainstorm a bit and arrived to this conclusion" Blossom knew Bubbles was just trying to find the right words, so she stayed quiet and listened. Buttercup instead was growing more and more agitated.

"We thought about this whole Butch's situation. Nothing we had come up until now made sense, so we started to lay out all the variables" Blossom suppressed the urge to smile, she knew Bubbles was trying to be as scientifically as possible to appeal to her. However, the whole thing was starting to take too long, confirming her suspects. She was definitely not going to like what was coming.

"He hasn't attacked you, nor he has attacked the city. He, nor any of his brothers, have approached Buttercup or me" Bubbles took a little break, looked at Buttercup and continued "What we know is that Butch, a guy, asked you out, after having danced with you the other night"

"You know?" Blossom cheeks were suddenly on fire. She purposely ignored the look of disapproval Buttercup was throwing her, focusing all her attention on Bubbles.

"How could we not. Robin was so happy you had finally met someone, she couldn't stop talking about it! A handsome guy with wild black hair and piercing green eyes, it wasn't that hard to put two and two together" she giggled while Buttercup gagged theatrically.

"What we are trying to say is-"

"What if Butch actually likes you, I mean look at you, why wouldn't he?" Buttercup's voice woke up all three of them, loud and clear, the polar opposite of the sweet and soft tone Bubbles had used. Apparently, Bubbles had been dancing around the issue too long for her liking.

"Yes, they are obviously up to something, otherwise they wouldn't be back, but we could take ages to discover their plan and then it could be too late" she continued, suddenly on her feet with hands on her hips.

"You are not suggesting what I think you are suggesting, right? I thought the only idea made you want to throw up!" Blossom was starting to feel sick, her appetite forgotten.

"It still does! But, listen, Leader girl, we are not saying that you have to snog him, we are just asking you to…"

"Play along" Bubbles finished her sentence.

"Yes, just play along until we find out what they are up to"

In that very moment, a familiar sound interrupted that crazy conversation.

The hotline phone was ringing loudly and glowing in red.

In the end, Butch had been a man of his word.

"This is a horrible idea, girls"

"We are not asking you to like it".


	4. So maybe tonight I'll be the libertine

It was a horrible, horrible idea.

Blossom had closed the conversation immediately after. She had gone to bed ignoring her sisters plotting. Buttercup, who had seemed so repulsed by the idea of her and Butch together, had been devising one hundred and more ways to trick him for the whole evening.

Her sister found the whole situation incredibly funny for the simple reasons she wasn't the one who would have to interact with Butch.

Of course, she could see it work. She didn’t really have to do anything besides hanging out with him. A few questions here and there, a little persuasion, and knowing Butch it wouldn’t have taken longer than a couple of weeks to make him spill out the truth.

However, for the very first time in her life, she doubted she could do it.

She had often been accused of being overconfident, to which she had always replied she simply knew what she could do and what not. This particular situation fell in the second category, together with the ability to drive a car and few other things.

Butch had the power of exhausting her patience and she didn’t know if she would be able to stand him, even worse, to have a conversation with him. Yes, they have had their moments in the past weeks, but they all had been exceptions to the rule.

Besides, he was high maintenance. She knew she couldn’t just waltz towards him and ask him to spill his brother’s master plan. She would have to play a role she wasn’t too comfortable playing.

Not that that even mattered. She was sure Butch had no intentions of spending time with a Powerpuff. Especially one he had defined boring.

Their last conversation had maybe disproved this point, but even Blossom had to admit she wasn’t exactly the life of the party. She still had to understand how he could possibly have fun with her.

Her idea of fun was a good book and watching old Hollywood’s movies. She doubted Butch was into that.

“We don’t even know if he will approach me again. It has already been two days!” she whined, Bubbles had made pancakes but she had completely lost her appetite.  

The weekend had been relatively calm, even if the so called crime break had been lifted.  She spent it solving a few simple cases that involved amateur criminals. No sign of Butch.

“He will” that was Buttercup’s answer before choking down what seemed to be the entire pancake.

“How do you know?”

“As he said, there isn’t much to do in this city. Bothering you is probably the highlight of his day. Plus, he is my counterpart, I know these things. See ya!” she winked, waved goodbye before grabbing her backpack and disappearing in a flash of green light.

“What is she doing today?” Bubbles was still cooking, wearing her favorite blue and white apron.

“Probably something that has to do with motorbikes, sharks or fire. Maybe all of the three” Blossom was still torturing her breakfast with the fork, she had yet to take a bite. She sighed unhappy and Bubbles was soon next to her.

“Stop stressing over it. If you meet him again by chance, then see if something can come out of it”

“It feels so weird devising a plan against one of the Rowdyruffs that doesn’t involve fighting him, especially since we are talking about Butch”

“True, but he hasn’t really behaved Butch-like, or am I wrong?”

The green Rowdy had been incredibly civil, that was true, excluding obviously their fight at the club. But even that hadn’t been serious for him, Blossom knew he could be far more dangerous.

The fight on the rooftop was all her fault, really. That day, she had acted incredibly out of character. She had thrown herself at him, maybe for the first in her life needing a fight, and Butch had kindly complied.

While Blossom and Bubbles didn’t really enjoy the act of fighting itself, and avoid it if possible, Buttercup had always been particularly eager to get into fights. She enjoyed a good match, it was her way to deal with what life threw at her.

While the counterpart bond could only explain so much, Blossom could say with almost certainty it was the same for Butch.

She knew he had enjoyed fighting her, she also knew he had been doing it for fun rather than to cause real harm.

She was very disappointed in herself, it really hadn’t been one of her greatest idea facing him alone, to then lose her temper. Yes, Butch had decided not to take it seriously, and she was lucky. There were no excuses for her behavior. She had acted careless and ignored everything that her common sense had been telling her to do.

She wasn’t really scared of him, even if he was stronger in combat, she was still faster and above all, smarter. The way he fought wasn’t really what she was used to, but she knew she could take him down with the right strategy.

What was scaring her was the fact that those last three encounters had seen a Blossom much more unstable than she usually was, and in no condition to formulate a good enough attack plan.

She had lost her temper already three times in his presence.

The first time that had allowed her to froze him on the ground. The second, he had decided to come in peace and ignored her attempt to fight. The third, she had completely lost her patience and for the first time in her superhero career attacked her opponent first.

She had always been a very defensive fighter, but she had almost initiated two fights, one which had actually been welcomed.

This was what was scaring her. She was not in total control in his presence and she had yet to understand why.

Butch, at the end of the day, was dangerous. If he decided to use all of his strength on her then she needed to be ready and have a clear mind.

As if reading her thoughts, Bubbles placed a hand on her forearm comfortingly.

“Blossy, I know Butch is dangerous, I haven’t forgotten” she murmured “I don’t want you to feel pressured into doing this, but if you decide to go through it, you have to promise me one thing”.

“And that is?”

“If the situation gets rough, you get out of there as fast as you can”.

Blossom felt the urge to give her a big hug, she took her hand in hers and smiled softly.

She nodded, an imperceptible movement of the head, then looked right in those big blue eyes, smile disappearing.

“This is still a horrible idea”.

 

* * *

 

 

Two long days and no sign of Butch.

It was an incredibly warm afternoon, the breeze of the previous days a past memory. The air was hot and dry.

She had found refuge in her favorite café downtown. A book on her lap and ice tea on the table. She had dance practices later that day, this gave her at least another hour of free time. Not that Blossom was actually able to enjoy it with her state of mind.

She had been going around the city trying to catch his attention the whole morning. She knew she had to pursue that crazy plan somehow, but at the moment the only thing she could do was to wait.

She absentmindedly touched the drink in front of her, frost appearing on the clear glass.

Her brain was ready to explode. She had analyzed the situation in her head a millions of times. She was dreading the moment he would show up, she had absolutely no idea how to behave. 

She knew she had to be friendly and their last encounter hand't been a complete disaster, the end of it at least. However, the main difference was that none of that had been planned. She was a horrible actress, how was she supposed to sell that ridiculous farce? How was she supposed to show interest? Couldn’t her sisters and she just… kidnap and torture the guy to make him spill out the truth?

_Superheroes’ morals be damned._

“Long time no see, un?”

She jumped in her seat and almost spilled the tea. She tried to regain composure, while her mind was going in overdrive. That voice enough had been able to inflict one last blow to her already beaten subconscious.

She deliberately chose not to look up, opening her book at a random page. She needed to buy herself time. The much anticipated moment had finally arrived and even though she had spent every single minute up to it worrying and mentally preparing, she had absolute no idea how to proceed. 

“Butch, I haven’t seen you for almost ten years, I’d say we have seen each other more than enough lately” good job Blossom, sarcasm was safe.

With no invitation he entered the booth and sat in front of her, on the other side of the small table.

Blossom panicked realizing all at once the situation. They were in a public space, in the middle of the day. Children were running around, a young couple was sharing a milkshake, an old men was reading the newspaper. Not only it was incredibly inappropriate for a Powerpuff to hang out with someone like him, she was putting in danger so many people.

She took a deep breath trying to calm herself, she had to remain impassible, even though her brain was formulating one hundred and one plans in case things went sour.

“So I’ve been thinking-”

“That’s a first”

“Is sarcasm a way to hide your boring ass life?”

“You sure would know about that, Butch” she raised an eyebrow at him, nervousness mixing with annoyance.

That plan was the worse idea her sisters had ever had. Not even a minute and Butch had already been capable of pushing her buttons.

“I see you are in a good mood”.

He was unfazed, hands around his cup of coffee, a new smirk on his face. Why did Blossom have the feeling he was having fun?

“Are you stalking me?” she was serious, her tea now completely frozen.

“You wish, babe” again with the babe.

“I have to say this is completely accidental. I had no idea I would have found you here… lucky day, un?”

She stayed silent, her eyes moving around the room. They all seemed to be unaware of the danger they were into. She had to find a way to leave as soon as possible.

“Oh Pinky, you really didn’t change”

“I thought we had already established that” she sputtered focusing his attention on him once again.

“If you stopped judging everyone from your pedestal just for as second, you would realize there is nothing to worry about”.

“This is ridiculous. I don’t judge anybody!” Blossom voice was a little higher than usual. What he was he implying really didn’t sit well with her.

“Oh please, if you look up the word snob on the dictionary, your picture is right next to it” his voice was lacking the usual amusement. He was being bitter, his tone sharp and his smirk suddenly more evil. 

Blossom was almost surprised at that change of mood, but if he thought that a childish insult was able to throw her off, he was wrong. Kids could be cruel, uptight, know-it-all, snooty were just some of the nicknames her classmates had called her during the years. Plus, his opinion meant very little to her. 

“I am surprised you even know how to consult a dictionary” she tried, insecure on how to proceed. She had wanted to come up with something slightly less aggravating, but she found being nice and collected extremely hard in his presence. Sarcasm was really the safest route, while also being the easier one.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence, Blossom ready to leave at any moment. A waiter approached them and Blossom’s heart reached her throat, her eyes wide and palms sweaty. The moment dissipated in a very anticlimactic fashion. The waiter refilled Butch’s mug and left.

“Relax, I wasn’t going to do anything” he was laughing now, a short, deep laugh.

Blossom didn’t answer, she simply looked at him, nerves leaving her body. He welcomed her silence as an invitation to continue.

“You have been looking around the café all freaked out as soon as I sat here. I know… the so mighty leader of the Powerpuffs cannot be seen in the presence of a scumbag like me” Butch voice was dripping with poison, for a moment Blossom could read disgust on his features and and for inexplicable reasons she felt incredibly ashamed.

“Don’t worry babe, no one remembers me…” if he had shown any trace of vulnerability, it had soon disappeared. He was back being his confident, sarcastic self.

Blossom bit her lip uncertain. Apparently, he could read her better than she thought. If she couldn’t even conceal a bit of emotions, how was she supposed to proceed with the plan?

Butch words were heavy between them. Her eyes now fixed on her frozen tea.

“Can you blame me?” she finally whispered finding the words she had been looking for.

“Come again?”

“Can you blame me?” she was looking him right in the eyes.

It took Butch a moment, he sipped his coffee, and then his attention settled back on her. 

“No… not really” he attempted a smile, and Blossom felt the tension between them weaken.  

She sighed, the last thing she wanted was to try his patience. She had to quickly change the pace of the conversation, so she opted for honesty, something that had worked the last time.    

“I am just worried, Butch. The night at the club, if I remember correctly, you threatened to hurt the people that were there, for then attacking me without mercy”.

“Oh please if I wanted to go all out on you, you wouldn’t be here to tell the story” Blossom almost scoffed. He was definitely giving her a good run for her money in terms of overconfidence.

However, for a second - but just for second - Blossom was glad they were back to mockery. She knew how to handle that, it was familiar. The Butch she had seen a second before was new to her, and therefore scary.

“And if I remember correctly, you were the one all over me the last time I checked” mockery and flirting. Yes, much safer…

Blossom decided to ignore his last remark, now that he was in a better mood she was not going to ruin it.

She knew she had to make him talk, if possible towards subjects that would force him to unconsciously spill what his brothers and he were up to.

Yes, that she knew.

However, she had no idea of what to talk about. Blank. Her mind completely empty. The situation was already hard enough without having to think about every words coming out of her mouth.

“So you have been thinking…” she attempted with no much conviction.

He had approached her rather amicably, so maybe he really had something to tell her. She decided that would be enough for the time being.

 “Yes!” he lightened up and his newly found good mood almost rubbed off on Blossom. He cleared his throat and straightened his back as if he was going to announce the result of dozens of sleepless nights and Blossom lips stretched in a smile.

“I think I found a way to help with your problem”.

Blossom almost laughed out loud. She had to cover her mouth with her hand to avoid a series of unladylike snorts of laughter.

She tried to recompose herself only to burst out in another series of giggles, Butch’s expression only making things worse. He was dead serious, if only slightly confused by her reaction.

“S-sorry…” she finally said, realizing that hadn’t been a joke.

“And what exactly is my problem?” she asked, amusement evident in her voice, chuckles fighting their way to the surface. She really wanted to see where that was going. 

“You don’t know how to have fun” Blossom used years and years of practice not to burst out in laughter in that very moment. Her smile grew wider and she averted her eyes for a second to try to regain her composure.

“ _Ha-ha._ Very funny. You can laugh as much as you want, but you know I am right” confusion had abandoned him to be replaced by annoyance.

While that conversation was probably one of the weirdest she had ever had, she decided to indulge him a bit and play along.

“You have to excuse me, but I just find the whole idea of a Rowdyruff expressing concern for my well-being slightly amusing, if not incredibly disturbing”.

Butch didn’t answer, clearly offended that his incredible deduction had gathered so little support.

“Plus I don’t really see how not being able to have fun is exactly a problem” to that the green Rowdy almost spilled his coffee. Blossom really couldn’t explain how that particular topic had been able to get such a reaction out of him.

“Are you kidding me?” he almost screamed while jumping in his seat, attracting a few concerned glances. Blossom smiled trying to show people everything was fine. She threw at Butch the look she usually used on Buttercup when she was acting out, and Butch sat down with no objection.

“You can’t be serious, you are even worse than I thought” he whispered leaning on the table, his face now much closer.

“What are you suggesting here, Butch?” for the first time she realized how much she loved that name on her lips, it gave her a sort of weird power. She almost blushed at the thought.

“The girl I saw at the club was this confident, feisty redhead with an amazing b-”

“Butch, you are trying my patience”

“Amazing dance moves”

“Continue”

“You were so free, so in the moment. You literally had no care in the world. You were being yourself and-”

“-and do you know what happened? A super villain showed up and decided to ruin my fun, threatening everybody around me” she interrupted him with too much cheer in her voice.

“I am flattered you consider me a super villain”

“Well, super villains are not anymore what they used to be”

They smiled, both amused by that brief back and forth. Her tea was finally liquid again and she played with the straw for a few seconds before looking up. Butch was observing her waiting for consent to continue, she quickly nodded her head.

“You can’t have fun because you want to have everything under control, and so I came up with the perfect plan”.

“Shoot” she deadpanned, it couldn’t really get worse than that.

“You should inject yourself what you gave me the other night, and see what happens”.

“Ok, this conversation ends here. Thanks for the entertainment, but I really have to go” she was already standing when Butch grabbed her hand.

“No, wait, please” she didn’t know what surprised her the most: hearing him beg or the fact that his hand was holding hers.

She sat and he immediately let her go, her fingers burning where he had touched her.  

“I hope you understand I will never put myself and my city in danger willingly” it didn’t matter if that was just a joke to him, she wanted to deliver that message loud and clear.

“This is exactly what I am talking about! Do you ever think only about yourself?” Butch was trying to keep his voice low, failing miserably.

“Some people don’t have that luxury” she was getting impatient. That conversation was reaching a territory she was not comfortable discuss, especially with him.

“Oh, please. Listen to you! What are you _Ghandi_?”

“This conversation is getting ridiculous! I know how to have fun!” she was the one screaming now and Butch was taken aback from that reaction. He slumped on the couch and crossed both arm over his chest.

“You do?” his tone was full of sarcasm and Blossom’s hands closed into fists under the table.

“I have just been busy lately”

“Aka since fifth grade”

She was losing her temper, just like their last encounter. How was he able to do that to her? He was becoming worse than Brick. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them, she promised herself she would not fall into that hole.

“I enjoy doing what I do” she slowly said, every word carrying a precise meaning.

Helping the professor, assisting the major, being active in devising new town strategies… these were all things she enjoyed doing, and she was tired of people deciding how she should have spent her time.

“What is fun for me, may not be fun for you. I enjoy doing what I do. I know you can’t understand that, but you, and everybody else, have to accept it and stop judging me”.

“I am not talking about that! Who cares if you are into fucking knitting or zumba classes. That’s your business” he was fast to reply and Blossom was speechless. She thought he was implying that she was a goody-two-shoes, that she was boring. Plus, she had never thought she would have heard the word zumba coming out of his mouth. Ever. 

“Then I don’t understand” she confessed, eyebrows raised and lips parted in confusion.

“It’s just… you are so responsible, it’s exhausting” his voice broke, frustration coming through. He looked outside the window, took a deep breath and then moved his gaze back on her.

“You are always this perfect little doll, aren’t you tired of it?”

Something within her broke.

 _Yes_.

That thought disappeared as fast as it had come.

“I feel so far from being perfect” she mumbled. Butch’s eyes were very green, she thought. However, they were so different from Buttercup’s. She had always thought the two shared the same eye color. She couldn’t have been more wrong. His were a deep, dark green and were following her every movement.

“And that’s perfectly ok, don’t you get it?” his voice was soft and so different from anything she knew about him. How could somebody change so much? Maybe, she had never really known him.

“Why are you so concerned about me?” she whispered, words half stuck in her throat.

It didn’t make sense, and she was not too good with things that weren’t logical.

Butch eyes widened and his lips opened to then close immediately after.

“Listen, Pinky, Plan B” he said with a new enthusiasm, that Blossom’s thought sounded incredibly fake.  

“Forget that horrible idea. Prove me wrong, show me your kind of fun, and I’ll show you mine”

“And why should I accept?” that question left her mouth before she was even able to realize it. _The plan! The plan!_ voices were screaming in her head, Butch had just served her the solution to her problems on a silver platter and she was trying to ruin it.

“So you can keep an eye on me?” it was merely an attempt, not even Butch believed those words. However, they had a completely different effect on Blossom. She almost let out a nervous laugh while trying to maintain an impassive expression. He couldn’t possibly know about all that was going on in her head, but hearing that out loud was enough to make her feel incredibly dirty and paranoid.

“No funny business, understood?” she tried projecting as much confidence in her voice as she could possibly summon.

Just like that, she had said yes.

Butch lightened up, he sighed and he looked as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“I swear I’ll behave! I give you my Rowdy’s word!”

“It’s not worth much” she wanted to laugh. That afternoon had been one of the weirdest of her life.

“Then you’ll just have to trust me”

“Trust you?” Butch opened in a smile.

“Yeah, that sounded wrong, didn’t it?”

She _really_ wanted to laugh, and then maybe cry a little. Because what _wasn’t_ wrong in that whole situation? She had just got herself into another deal, as if her life hadn’t already been enough of a mess.

 

* * *

 

 

"What did they take?" she asked surveying the area of the crime.

She had just started dancing when her phone had begun to beep, the ringtone was the one reserved to superheroes' matters.

She was still wearing her leotard, and her hair was safely pinned in a dancer bun. 

"It's hard to tell. The whole museum is a complete mess, they will take days to complete the inventory" Buttercup, on the other hand, was sporting a biker jacket and biker gloves, clear sign of what she had been doing that afternoon. 

After months of begging, the Professor had bought her an old motorbike and, contrarily to Blossom's inability to drive anything with a motor, Buttercup was a natural. She had spent months fixing it, adding new features and making sure it was perfect. Now that it was finally running, you barely saw her fly anymore. 

"How can you wear  _that_  with this heat?" Bubbles face was red, sweat on her forehead. Her signature pigtails had been replaced by space buns. She was wearing a light sundress with big sunflowers printed on it and she was looking anywhere for the fan of the air conditioning. 

She mentally noted their different outfits and scrolled her head. They had commissioned these super cool uniforms a few months back, made with a highly protective textile with the ability to adapt to their powers. Unfortunately, they seemed to never have the time to wear them. Movies really did show an inaccurate representation of superheros' lives.

She hadn't stepped foot in Townsville museum for years, when she was younger it was one of her favorite place. What was in front of her was heartbreaking. The floor was scattered with the remaining of the exhibits. Model of planes and starships broke in thousands of pieces under her feet.

The simulation of the solar system, that had helped her ace her science test when she was eight, was completely destroyed. Only Venus was barely hanging.

"There is nothing worth stealing, this must be a prank somebody decided to pull" she commented more to herself than for her sisters to hear.

"We know they took one thing for sure" Buttercup was beside her, an annoyed expression adorning her features. Blossom perfectly understood what she was thinking. They all had better things to do than solve the mess some kids decided to make.

"Those fuckers stole one of the embalmed monkeys from the natural science section" Blossom rolled her eyes, that only confirmed her suspects.

"Did the cameras filmed anything?" she hoped their inexperience would pay off.

"Actually Blossy, they were burnt, completely. All of them…" Bubbles had been floating around trying to adjust what had been spared.

Blossom tried to connect the dots, uneasiness growing in her chest. She knew there was something missing.

"What are all of these documents?" she finally said, her attention kept falling on those yellowish papers that were all over the floor. Blossom picked one up and read the first few line. The handwriting was incredibly familiar.

"Just a bunch of old notes that were showcased over there" Bubbles pointed to a glass case completely shattered. Blossom floated towards it and looked for the description of that particular piece of exhibit and her intuition was confirmed.

"These are notes that the Professor donated to museum" she flew around what was remaining of the case. Something had pulled her towards that exact spot for a reason, she knew it was an important piece of that puzzle. She picked up another paper revealing a small silver object underneath.

"What are they about?" both Buttercup and Bubbles were now looking at her with a curios look on their face.

She picked the lighter up and looked at it for a long moment.

"They are about us".


	5. Chapter 5

“What the fuck is _that_?”

Butch had been out for about three hours, four top. He really couldn’t explain what that _thing_ was doing in their apartment, or better how it got there - even if a snickering Boomer should have been a good of enough hint on the how part.

“Cool, right? It almost looks like him” Boomer’s voice was monotone, almost bored. He had the ability to maintain the same tone in a discussion for hours, which was often infuriating and usually made people desist to have a conversation with him. 

Only a very attentive listener would have picked up the spark of cheerfulness behind his words. That little prank had put Boomer in a very good mood.

“It looks nothing like him” Butch shifted uneasy, the stupid monkey was staring at him and it freaked him out. It was a mix between a stuffed animal and something you find in a horror movie.

“What happened?” he asked fixing his gaze on the tv, trying to avoid at all cost looking at that creepy thing that was currently sitting on the sofa next to his brother.

“I liked it, I took it”.

“I am not talking about the monkey” Boomer face remained impassible. He touched with his index finger the place between his nose and his lips, scratching dry blood away from the skin. His left eye was bruised, the lid half closed. Painful looking bruises were forming on the side of his neck, disappearing under his t-shirt.

He looked like he had been to hell and back.

“I fell” he stated simply, eyes glued to the television. Butch reached the fridge, suddenly in need of a beer. The apartment was tiny, one room serving both as kitchen and living room. They had been able to occupy the place pulling strings here and there, but they weren’t sure how long that would last.

“How high were you?” Butch asked trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing, the cold liquid going down his throat.

“Probably 50 meters or so” he closed his eyes, Boomer words confirming what he already knew. Suddenly that too familiar nightmare was reclaiming space in their life.

“Fuck” he finally said, any other words not really quite as appropriate.

“Yeah, pretty fucking painful” Boomer voice was if possible even more emotionless.

“Did he at least find what he was looking for?”

“Who knows”

Butch sighed, letting out some frustration. 

He needed a shower, then maybe another beer. After that, a crowd, loud music, and something stronger than a beer. Among the crowd, someone who would kiss away those stupid worries.

He thought of the Pink Puff. He thought of her plump lips, her hips moving with the beat of the music, her eyes glassy and lids half closed.

How could he not think of her, after having spent the past hours interpreting her every smile, look or nod of the head, even the smallest of ones. One thing he noted for sure, she hadn’t mentioned Brick name once, and for that he was secretly very proud. 

It was a nice thought. A thought he would have loved to prolong just a bit longer.

He soon snapped awake, knowing that some other girl’s lips, hips and glossy eyes would have to do. Not that he really cared anyway.

“Where were you?” he was blocked midway towards his room, Boomer’s finally looking at him.

“With her” he had pondered for a moment whether to lie or not. In the end, telling him had been the easiest choice.

“He doesn’t know, does he?” and for the second time since he had gotten back home, Butch could hear humor cleverly buried in his brother’s voice.

Did Brick have to know? It surely would have made everything so damn difficult.

He didn’t like difficult.

Hanging out with the Pink Puff was so wrong, it was right. Butch loved doing things he shouldn’t.

She was so easy to fluster, so predictable in her answers, yet so incredibly unexpected. She amused him to no end, a breath of fresh air in the stillness of his days.

It was something he had control upon and it made him feel as if he was still in the driving seat of his life, the one deciding and making a choice.

Brick would have totally forbidden it, which was one more reason to continue looking for her and one more reason to keep everything secret.

“I won’t tell”

“I don’t care” he lied, a thank you hidden behind those words. “Do you?”

“What?”

“Do you care?”

“I understand you. I don’t understand her” Boomer’s attention shifted back to the television, clear sign that their conversation was over.  

Butch walked in his room, closing the door behind.

“Me neither” he whispered to the empty bedroom. In front of his eyes, the image of the pink puff looking around the cafè, with her breath caught in her throat and her eyes wide open. Fear and shame filling her features.

It didn’t matter, he didn’t have to understand her.

He would take all the time she would allow him.

He would take it all.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Blossom squeezed her eyes, both hands on her temples, realizing she had been reading the same two lines over and over for the past ten minutes.

She was getting incredibly tired. She had gently asked the police and the museum if she could take those notes home to work on them and so she had done.

She knew them by heart, having read them all night. It hadn’t been an easy task, the professor had a horrible handwriting, some papers were torn and the ink had faded in some parts. However, she had been able to reach a conclusion: she had this very strong feeling some pages were missing.

The museum couldn’t confirm it and the pages weren’t numbered, but she knew something was wrong. There were no words cut off, no paragraphs hanging. The whole narrative was cohesive, but not enough, as if an entire chapter was missing.

Whatever piece of information those particular pages were carrying with them remained a mystery. She would have to ask the Professor, hoping he could be of help and actually remember the content of those missing notes, but that would have to wait until the next day.

She looked at the clock, it was a bit past one and she was starting to feel tired.

She relaxed in her chair, stretching like a cat.

What did she know?

Her guts were telling her there was something off with that whole situation. Why would anybody bother to break in an old museum to steal messy, informal notes taken almost two decades before?

The main topic was chemical X, that she had understood. There were confused notes taken by the Professor in the years following the birth of her sisters and her. There were early hypotheses on the effect of Chemical X on DNA, with some references to their superpowers, at the time slowing emerging.

She knew they weren’t particularly groundbreaking, nor did they contain the formula to create the “perfect little girls”, but this did little to quiet her concern. Anybody who would go to the trouble to rob a museum to steal those specific notes had to have a very precise use for them.

It wasn’t a standard crime with a clear motive and payoff. Years of experience had taught her that the biggest danger was hidden in the most unexpected places.

Her attention was once again caught by the silver lighter, now resting on her desk. She played with it a few seconds, trying to collect her thoughts. The flame appeared a few times to disappear right after.

She had obviously taught of Butch when she had seen it, and for a very brief second she almost hoped for it to be true. It would have put an immediate stop to all that crazy plan her sisters had devised.  However, the fact that he was a smoker was a very weak argument in his disfavor. A lot of people smoked and she knew for a fact his lighter was black and cheap looking, having seen it a couple of times. This didn’t delete his name from the list of possible culprits, but neither did it confirm it.

The culprit had stolen some old notes on Chemical X and weirdly enough an embalmed monkey. Maybe a Mojo Jojo fanatic? There were some really weird people out there, she wouldn’t have been surprised if that turned out to be the case.

She also knew he or she loved making a mess, but he or she had been careful enough not to leave any trace behind, tampering with security camera.

The mystery offender had left only one thing: the silver lighter.

A knock on her door made her jump in her seat. Blossom dropped the lighter and turned a bit dazed, as if she had just been awaken.

“Come in” she said, her voice loud in the silence belonging to those deep hours of the night.

“Still awake?” Buttercup entered the room and quickly closed the door behind, before floating towards her sister’s bed. She was in her pajama, an old t-shirt with the logo of a band on it and a pair of pink shorts which used to be Blossom’s.

“I-I… I couldn’t sleep” she decided to opt for an easy way out, she still had to figure a thing or two before sharing her thoughts with her sisters. “You?”

“I couldn’t sleep neither” Buttercup offered a small smiled, leg crossed and the pink blanket draped across her shoulders. A second later, Blossom had joined her on the bed, the room now dark, illuminated only by the small lamp on her nightstand.

They were sat one next the other, with the back pressed again the head of the bed, and the sheets all around them, cuddling them up in a bubble of warm and softness. 

Growing up, they all got their separate rooms. Blossom used to stay up reading, Bubbles loved having long phone calls and Buttercup just enjoyed sleeping in in the morning. Sharing a room had turned out to be a nightmare.

However, even if they weren’t sleeping in the same room anymore, it wasn’t unusual that one of them would end up sleeping in the bed of one of her sisters. For example, after having watched a movie together, when they had a bit of catching up to do or just when they were in need of a little bit of comfort.

They stayed silent, their breath getting heavier and more relaxed. Buttercup had always had this power on her. If she was stressed, Buttercup was the answer.

Bubbles had a completely different energy to hers, she was energizing and inspiring. Buttercup instead was soothing and grounding. She had the ability of making her feel safe.

“What did you do today, I didn’t get the chance to ask you” she finally mumbled, voice sleepy and heavy lids.

“Don’t laugh, promise?” Blossom smiled softly, looking for her sister’s eyes in the hope that gesture would give her a little bit of assurance. She gave a little nod, inviting Buttercup to continue.

“I joined a book club” those words were buried in her knees and Blossom took a moment to understand them.

“Why would I laugh?” she finally said, she had wanted to congratulate her sister, asking her if she could join as well (Blossom really did love reading), but that specific question had fought her way out and apparently won.

Buttercup grunted, rolling her eyes dramatically. The energy in the room shifted, any sign of sleepiness forgotten. Both sisters were now incredibly awake, with the attention you reserve to those special conversations, when the air is still and confessions are ready to be shared. They were now sat one in front of the other, their heads popping out from the blanket, their faces only partially illuminated by reddish light.

“Because it doesn’t involve sharks, fire or motorbikes” the green puff deadpanned, eyebrows raised as if she was stating the obvious.

“Buttercup, you know it’s just a joke”

“I know… but this, it’s just not me” Buttercup had dropped all sarcasm. It was rare for her to show vulnerability, it was a gift she gave to very few people.

Blossom pondered her next words very carefully.

“I think it is very you” she finally said after a few seconds. “You have every right to do whatever makes you happy. Were you born with a leaflet which told you exactly what you were and what you were not? I don’t think so”.

Buttercup opened in a smile, which stretched up to her eyes.

“Thank you, Blossom” they both laughed, the air in the room suddenly much lighter.

“Can I join?”

“No.”

“Come on!” Blossom punched her sister weakly on the shoulder, faking disappointment.  

“You know why I don’t want you there” Buttercup really had a point. Blossom could be extremely opinionated, finding a book club up to her standards was not an easy task.

“Yes, I know” she whined, arms crossed on her chest, eyes to the ceiling and a pout on her lips.

“You would make them cry”

“Yup. Every single one of them”.

They both laughed, this time much louder than a few seconds before. Buttercup started to speak about the first book assigned by the club. Conversation flowing easily between the two of them. It was a thriller set in Italy during the 50s. Organized crime, small rural towns and an incredibly mysterious detective trying to figure his way through a web of lies and corruption.

Buttercup’s eyes were sparkling and Blossom found herself thinking how her sister could ever think something like that was not “her” enough, if it made her that excited.

“And you?” Blossom was taken back to reality. Buttercup was now looking at her with curious eyes, a smile still on her lips.

“What’s on your mind?” her sister supplied.

“Nothing, why would I have something on my mind?” she was surprised at that question, was she really that obvious? Something had been bothering her the whole day, the crime at the museum had been a good enough distraction, but there she was, still awake at two in the morning, with the same question running through her mind.

Buttercup didn’t say anything, she just gave Blossom time to open up. Being vulnerable was something difficult for both of them. In the end, Blossom and Buttercup were very similar, almost as if they were two different sides of a medal. Yes, they disagree on a lot of things, but there were very few people who could understand them as well as they did each other.

“Do you think I know how to have fun?” it was a whisper, Blossom could almost see those words leaving her mouth, floating weakly in the air bringing with them a series of very uncomfortable feelings.

The silent following that question was deafening, Blossom had to close her eyes, the feeling of exposure too strong. In a second, she was back in that café, looking at deep green eyes trying to decipher her. She opened them immediately, preferring the reality of the situation to her imagination.

“I think…I think you know how to have fun, but I think sometimes you don’t allow yourself to have fun” it was an honest reply, probably the most honest answer Blossom would ever get. Buttercup was now holding her hand, squeezing it gently.

“Can I ask you a question?” Blossom nodded and Buttercup scooped closer, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

“Do you think you know how to have fun?”

“I don’t know” her voice getting weaker, softer, barely audible. “Sometimes I feel I am not supposed to”.

And then, Buttercup was hugging her, holding her strongly.

“You have every right to do whatever makes you happy. Were you born with a leaflet which told you exactly what you were and what you were not? I don’t think so” Buttercup repeated her very own words in her ear. Voice filled with confidence and power and Blossom felt the knot in her chest disentangling and a first layer of tears forming.

Buttercup prolonged the hug a little longer, before breaking it to look at her face to face.

“You have learnt to control, now you just need to learn to let go”

Let go. That was the second person that day telling her she needed to let go, and while the advice of the first she could easily ignore, Buttercup’s opinion was to her much more valuable.

“Thanks Butters” they smiled at each other, and for a second Blossom taught how lucky she was to have her sisters in her life.

“Augh, all this deep talk made me hungry” Buttercup jumped in the air, now floating a few centimeters from the mattress. As if having sensed the shift of the conversation, Bubbles appeared at the door, sleepy eyes and disheveled hair. She was wearing a purple nightgown with little kittens printed on it.  

“Girls, what are you doing awake?” she mumbled, scratching her eyes and taking a few steps in the room.

“Wanna have some late night pancakes?” Buttercup was the complete opposite, well awake and full of energy. Her voice contrasting that of the blue puff almost painfully.

“Of course, they are the best type of pancakes!” it really did take little to excite Bubbles, in a second she had been able to match Buttercup’s energy. She floated in the air to meet her sister and started clapping her hands happily.

“Blossy, are you coming?”

Both her sisters were looking at her from above with expecting eyes.

It was late, almost three. Eating pancakes at night couldn’t really be considered a healthy diet. Plus, she had a very long day and a longer one was waiting for her. She had all good reason to decline.

“I want mine with chocolate chips”.

Just like that she was up in the air with her sisters.

She really had a lot of good reasons to say no, but one good reason to say yes had been enough.  

Late night pancakes were always fun.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When she woke up the next morning, she felt as if she had slept soundly for the whole night. Weirdly enough, she was feeling lighter and more focused.

Same couldn’t really be told for Buttercup, half-collapsed on the kitchen table. She grumbled something very similar to orange juice and Blossom filled her glass. The thumb up from her sister signaling she had understood correctly.

“Oh Butters, if you would have gone to bed like me and Blossy, instead of playing videogames you could have gotten a few hours of sleep” Bubbles voice was as cheerful as ever, she had just gathered all together the mail received and was now going through the various letters. “Why can’t you go back to bed?” she then added, throwing away a few flyers.

As to answer Bubbles’ question, the Professor entered the kitchen. He was already wearing his lab coat.

“Hello, girls. Is there any coffee left?” Buttercup looked at Bubbles and then moved her chin towards the Professor, that was all the explanation she was going to give and apparently for Blossom and Bubbles was enough.

“Right! Today is your day with Doctor Professor” Blossom looked at the calendar hanging on the door, a big green x was drawn in the box of that day.

It had all started when they were younger. Around the age of four, their powers had started to change and evolve. They started to fly, shooting laser beams and their strength had increased. By the age of twelve, she could summon ice, Bubbles could speak with animals and Buttercup could generate energy from her hands.

For this reason, the professor had decided that monitoring would be needed. Everything around them remained a mystery of science. This was a way to understand a bit better their anatomy and what they could expect from their bodies.

They did catch colds and the flu, just not like normal people. A simple cold would not make Blossom's nose runny, it would instead turn her ice power into fire, causing a fire hazard every time she sneezed. These checks were a way to create their own medical standards and understand what was good for them and what not.

These visits soon became known as date with Doctor Professor. When they were kids, he used to tell them he was their doctor for the day and rewarded them with lollipops.

“Right, and Buttercup and I have a lot to talk about, since she skipped the last two visits. No lollipop for you this time, young lady” the Professor was trying to be as serious as possible, but his voice was full of amusement. 

Buttercup grunted, forehead back on the table.

The Professor gently accepted the mug of coffee from Bubbles’ hands and made his way out of the room.

Blossom took a second to remember she needed his help. She was soon up in the air, floating in the direction of the lab.

“Professor, can I talk to you a second?” she managed to catch him right on the stairs.

“Sure Blossom, do you want to help me set up the lab in the meanwhile?” Blossom nodded energetically.

The whole basement had been set up as a laboratory and Blossom loved it. It was probably the place she loved the most in the whole house.

It reminded her of her childhood: the dozen of science projects she had taken part in, the first time she had mixed two chemicals together and all the afternoons she had spent observing adoringly the Professor working.

“Do you remember the notes I told you about?” she turned on the lights while the Professor had started to gather the various tools he usually used during those examinations.

“The ones you have found in the museum?”

“Yes… the thing is I think some pages may be missing”

“Good thing you have a direct contact with the original source” the Professor could be extremely cheeky sometimes. She scrolled her head and rolled her eyes dramatically. 

“If the original source is able to remember and decipher his horrible handwriting”

The professor laughed, nodding in agreement. He took the big binder with the name “Buttercup” on it that Blossom was passing him, and positioned it on the table next to various medical tools.

“Do you have the notes with you?” there was a flash of pink light, a second later Blossom reappeared with the papers in her hands.

The Professor looked at them for a long moment and sighed.

“I may need more than just a quick look. I will compare them with my archive and get back to you”.

“Thanks Professor, I hope I am wrong but you can never be too careful” as an answer he ruffled her hair with a lovingly stroke.

“Could you go call you sister? If needed, please drag her here”

“Will do” Blossom winked and rapidly ran up the stairs.

When she got back in the kitchen, a completely different picture was waiting for her. Well, a part for Buttercup. She was still half sleeping on the table.

Bubbles was flying around the room, every piece of cloth in her possession in her hands.

“This is too long”

Toss.

“This is too white”

Toss.

“Augh, this is just horrible. Oh right, this is yours Blossom”

Toss.

“What is going on?” Blossom was finally able to ask after having ducked a few clothes thrown her way.

“What month is it?” Buttercup intervened, barely raising her head from the table.

“Augus- oh fudge!”

“No, Blossom the word you were looking for was fuc-”

“Oh, you two stop it! It’s going to be amazing! Look at the invitations, this year they are all sparkly!” Blossom looked at those pieces of paper with no emotions if not pure dread.

She really didn’t want to go. 

Every August, the town would organize a big charity event with the biggest names in town. The goal was supposedly to raise money for good causes, in reality it was just another occasion for rich people to show how actually rich they were. Just like every year, they had been invited. Their presence was necessary for a very simple reason: politics. It made the town look good and their popularity higher. Everybody loved the Powerpuff girls and it was important it remained that way.

"Don't worry, Leader Girl. It gets worse" 

She threw a second look at the invitation and her eyes widened in surprise. 

"It is held at Morbucks Manor?"

“Yup. Kill. Me. Now.” Buttercup had all Blossom’s support. “Do we really have to go?”

“It’s not like we have a choice”

“But we said last year was the last time!”

“Buttercup, I have never said anything like that!” Bubbles was still in the air, hugging clothes to her chest.

“The Professor wants you downstairs” Blossom stated weakly. They really had little power over the matter, only a big emergency, like the town getting attacked, would be a good enough excuse not to attend the event.  

“Please kill me, I am serious” Buttercup eyes were almost scary, she looked so done.

“Blossom, don’t listen to her! I have the perfect outfit planned for you!”

She looked back at Buttercup and slowly shook her head.

“Kill you? About you kill me”.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

When she saw Butch, she almost felt relieved.

That lasted exactly the second she had needed to come to that realization. She scrolled her head and blinked a few times, as if trying to physically throw out of her mind that weird thought.

Forgotten was the worry and the fear she had felt the first night at the club. By now, she knew he wasn't a threat. Something was telling her he had no intention of misbehaving. She still had her doubts about that famous crush he was supposed to have, according to her sisters, but she was starting to believe he was using her as entertainment and that much could work in her favor.

It was a simple, puerile reason, but Butch was simple and puerile.

This still didn't explain why she was feeling relieved. She should have been annoyed, maybe just a tiny bit disgusted. Then, why was she almost happy to see him?

She had been waiting for him to show up since their last encounter. Him coming back to pester her was almost physiological, a matter of time, and she had known that.

Yes, she had been waiting for him, and usually when the wait is over, one feels relieved. She decided that was all the explanation she needed, and to focus her attention to the next pressing matter at hand.

"What are you doing here?" here being a women clothing store. Blossom was doing some shopping, when his green eyes had appeared behind the pale blue shirt she was considering buying. She also came to the conclusion that maybe, she had so well received his arrival, because that meant she could finally stop pretending to shop.

She was trying to look for something for the upcoming big event, but with not much hope of actually finding anything. Bubbles was always the one in charge of her outfit. She got to veto some of her sister's choices, but she really didn't have much power on the final outcome.

She was extremely proud on how she had reacted upon seeing him. She had been able to stay cool, unfazed. Inside, she was screaming, trying to fight that weird bubble of gratification that was growing inside her chest.

Butch just shrugged his shoulders as a reply and Blossom couldn't help but open up in a smile, slowly regaining control of her thoughts.

"Wait, don't tell me. It was completely accidental. You keep having those lucky days" she raised an eyebrow at him and she was rewarded with a brief laugh.

"Let's say I get a weird feeling when you are around" Butch gave his best flirtatious look and Blossom scrolled her head once again in resignation.

"That feeling is called stalking" she put on her sweetest and fakest smile, hung the shirt back and walked out the store.

He was soon at her side once again, no difficulties in keeping up with the fast pace.

"Were you looking for something specific? Because I can be of help. I have great taste, especially in the lingerie department".

"I suddenly have this incredible urge to drink bleach directly from the bottle".

"I take that as a maybe next time".

She stopped in her tracks and took her time to turn and face him.

"Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. Take that as a: when hell will freeze" she tried to be serious, but her voice was betraying her. She was finding that whole interaction incredibly amusing and it must have shown on her face. She resumed her walking, with no clear destination in mind.

She could see him from the corner of her eye, a smirk on his lips and both of his hands in his pockets.

They were walking in a lovely pedestrian area with a few shops here and there. People all around them were taking advantage of that summer weekend, strolling around with no hurry.

Blossom smiled, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her skin. She loved summer. She didn't hate school, she could even say she liked it, but during summer she could use her time as she wanted. She liked learning, reading and discovering new things, of course, but despite what everybody was saying about her, she really didn't enjoy spending the majority of her time stuck in a classroom.

"I didn't give you for the shopping type" he finally said after a few seconds, his tone colloquial and light.

"Trust me, I am not" she matched his energy, responding casually. That day, there was very little tension between them. It was as if they were getting used to each other. If somebody would have seen them for the first time, he would have never guessed they once had been, or still were, enemy.

"These are all books and…" she gave a quick look in her shopping bag "Actually, just books". She mentally kicked herself, she really didn't need new books in her collection. Her library was already about to burst.

"So what have you planned for me?" he said, hands still in his pockets, swinging lazily on his heels.

"Planned?" Blossom was lost for a moment, realizing what he was referring to only once those words were out of her mouth. "Oh, yes, right. You want me to show you my kind of fun" she added slapping her forehead with her free hand.

Butch nodded, maybe with too much emphasis. Blossom looked left and then right, trying to come up with the first thing that could actually make sense. She really hadn't given it much thought, with the museum and the big gala coming up, Butch had somehow slipped her mind. A little light bulb suddenly turned on in her head.

"There. Have a blast." she picked a book from her shopping bag and shoved it into his chest. Butch was barely able to grab it, before Blossom started walking once again.

"Wild." He deadpanned, his voice void of any enthusiasm. Nevertheless, Blossom saw him hide the book in his pockets. She mentally cringed at the idea of the book becoming completely wrinkled, but opted to keep that discomfort for herself. She could be a book freak and she knew that.

They walked in silent for a few seconds, but it was hard to forget he was at her side.

He was tall, with broad athletic shoulders and strong arms, and every time they were next to each other she was reminded how much he had actually grown. All those traits were even more evident during their fights. When they were kids, they hadn't been all that different, but now things had changed and even if she was still confident that her sisters and she could defeat the Rowdyruff boys, she knew she had to take all of that into account.

"This means is my turn" Blossom train of thoughts was interrupted. She really didn't like his tone, there was a bit too much excitement behind those words.

"When was the last time you played catch?".

"W-what?" she barely had the time to register what he had just told her, a second later her hair was falling freely on her shoulders.

Butch was up in the air, the attention of everybody around them now on him. Some people were screaming, others were just staring at him with their mouths wide open.

"Butch! Give me my bow back!" she screamed, not caring about the fact that they were giving a show. At the moment, her bow was her only worry. Nobody touched her hair and he would learn that very soon.

"Come and catch it".

Just like that, he was gone.

Blossom was immediately behind him.

She had really good reflexes, her body had moved before her mind had even realized what she was doing. She knew it wasn't proper, people were watching her and, for sure, someone would take a picture of her flying in a skirt and post it online. She really needed to stop wearing skirts, especially when Butch was around.

"What, Pinky, you can't keep up?"

She wasn't used to fly with her hair down, it kept blocking her vision, plus the bag full of books was repeatedly hitting her leg. However, she would not give him that satisfaction. Butch was only a few meters in front of her, she could almost touch his green streak. He was fast, but she decided she was faster.

She almost had him, she just needed to speed up a bit, her hand already stretched in the air, but, when she was almost touching his leg, he turned, winked and then let himself fall.

A complete dive in the emptiness below.

Blossom stopped, shocked at that turn of events. He was looking at her, now floating a few meters below. He winked for a second time and speeded off once again.

She grunted annoyed. She was back at his tail, this time determined not to let him get away. Her read bow was right in front of her, floating from his hand. Butch was having some difficulties in keeping his lead and Blossom noted that immediately.

Not only she was faster, she was smarter. She took a deep breath, followed by a long blow of ice. She froze his entire arm, he lost speed and that was all she needed to steal her bow back.

"Can't keep up, Butch?" she joked, a devious smile on her lips, her bow swinging back and forth in the air.

They were back at it. Blossom now leading the chase, with Butch very close behind.

She tried to fly as fast as possible, her heart was beating like crazy and she was all out of breath, but more importantly she was smiling.

She threw a look behind and saw Butch approaching, he had almost got her and she knew she had to do something. She blew ice one more time, tiny little flakes just to slow him down, but this time it was intercepted by a green shield. She almost stopped, surprised by what had just happened, a second later the bow was in Butch's hand.

"Not the only one with new powers" he was off in flash of green.

They continued like that for a good half an hour, both too competitive to give up. The bow had passed hands several times and Blossom had lost count. In her mind it was all going so fast, the actually passing of time completely lost on her.

She had finally got that red piece of cloth back, after a powerful sprint. She was holding it tightly in her hand, making sure not to drop it. She was feeling exhilarated, almost giddy. She knew he was close behind, but she didn't care. Because that was the game, if he would steal her bow, she would take it back.

All of the sudden, she felt herself being grabbed by an ankle. She let out a very undignified squeaking noise when she was thrown against a billboard. Soon, Butch was on her.

"Gotcha".

His breath was as erratic as hers, warm against her skin. One of his hands was pressed against the billboard, right next to her head, the other grabbing lightly her wrist, the red ribbon tightly enclosed within her delicate fingers.

Blossom could feel her heart beating against her ribcage, as if it was trying to desperately escape. He was smirking, as usual, his lips slightly parted. His eyes, a deep, full green, adorned by the longest lashes she had ever seen. The point of his nose was almost touching hers, but she really couldn't bring herself to mind.

She should have scolded him, pushed him away, told him to never touch her hair again. Instead, she smiled with her mind foggy and her chest incredibly light. She started laughing with a barely audible giggle, to then burst out in laughter. A very special kind of laughs, the ones that make your belly hurt and your eyes watery.

Butch backed away, observing her curiously, and she kept laughing, happy tears filling her eyes. She pirouetted in the sky and smiled dreamily.

"I used to love playing catch" she finally admitted, eyes wide open and cheeks red for the effort. They slowly, unconsciously, descended, feet touching the ground.

She hadn't played catch in years. It served no purpose and it wasn't proper for a girl her age to keep playing such a childish game. Then why was she feeling so…  _happy_?

"How did you know?"

"I didn't" he simply stated. He was smiling too infected by Blossom's good mood, a full bright smile so different from his usual grin.

"Well, nevertheless, it was…"

"Fun?" he supplied, a knowing look on his face.

"Refreshing" she didn't want to give him that satisfaction, not yet at least. She threw him a cheeky smile and he scrolled his head knowingly.

"My sisters and I used to play it all the time. It gave us the chance to fly around just for fun, even if it usually ended in bloodshed"

"Buttercup?"

"Bubbles. You have no idea how competitive she can get" Butch laughed again and this time, Blossom found herself thinking she liked that sound.

"She would get along with Brick, then. Boomer is the fastest among us three and this drives him nuts"

"And you?"

"Me?" Butch went from a puzzled expression, eyebrows raised and lips parted, to a smug smirk.

"What are you like?"

"I just like a good run, especially behind a pretty lady" Blossom scoffed, smoothing down her skirt as if he had just reminded her that she was wearing one.

"I have to admit, I thought your idea of fun was way more… scandalous?" she tried, not sure that was the word she was looking for. She looked around, that dreamy expression still on her face.

"We are on top of the library" she stated matter-of-factly. Butch nodded absentmindedly, siting on the edge of the building, legs crossed and a newly lit cigarette between his lips.

"You know there is an entire section on super-beings? My sisters and I are in it. The Rowdyruffs are probably mentioned a couple of times too" she commented sitting next to him. Why did they always end up sharing conversation on rooftops? She imitated his position, her legs crossed so she could face him, careful that her skirt was long enough to cover what needed to be covered.

"When I was younger, there used to be this awful librarian, Miss Brown" she continued without even thinking. "She was horrible, she would never let me read the books I wanted, telling me they were not age appropriate and that a young girl like me should stick to simpler books. So, I started hiding books in my bag, sneaking up here. I used to love reading on this rooftop".

"I always knew you were a rebel, babe" she rolled her eyes at that comment, but she didn't look at him, knowing too well he had been observing her since she had started talking.

"Point is, this is one of my favorite place, the sunset from here is amazing" she concluded with eyes still on the horizon. The sun was high in the sky, the noises of the city below them slightly dulled by their height. It was, again, an incredibly hot day, her hair was sticking to her skin, which was burning with heat.

"Why I am telling you this?" she said in a breath, lip between her teeth, moving her gaze to finally meet his.

"I don't mind" those words were lost in a cloud of smoke. He took one last puff, before throwing what was remaining of his cigarette in the air.

"I do" she confessed meekly following its fall, a reproach somewhere on her tongue unable to come out.

It shouldn't have felt so natural interacting with him.

She shouldn't have felt relief in seeing him nor she should have felt comfortable enough to tell him her childhood stories. Plus, the whole point of their time spent together was to make him talk. Blossom almost grunted in frustration, she had completely forgotten about the plan.

"Well, I guess I could see its charm. It's a perfect make out spot, ever brought a guy here?" trust Butch to bring back the conversation to a safer path. She scrolled her head in a negative answer, amused at the idea.

"A little difficult coming here with no superpowers and I don't know a lot of guys whose virility wouldn't be put in question by being carried bridal style" Butch laughed, a bright, rich laugh, that made a smile of her own appear. Yes, she definitely liked the sound of his laugh, which was a weird thought but one she wasn't feeling guilty of having.

"Sissies. You can carry me whenever you want" he winked at her and Blossom was, once again, at loss of words at its bluntness.

She straightened her back and cleared her throat, trying to buy herself some time. She knew she had to stir the conversation towards something that could benefit her, something that would make him talk somehow.

"So while I was stealing book from the library, what were you doing Butch?"

"Probably stealing something a bit more expensive than books" he commented distracted, his attention for the first time on his phone. Blossom hated that habit and she had to use a lot of self-control not to grab his phone and throw it in the air.

"Where, if I may ask?" she continued sweetly, maybe him not paying attention could work to her advantage.

"We used to move a lot, every couple of years, but we spent the last few years in Citiesville"

Citisville? It was right around the corner. They had been so close for all of those years and yet, they had been able to stay under the radar. What had they been doing there? Maybe, they had really decided to stop being criminals.

Butch was still on his phone, scrolling through a chat, from what she was able to see from that distance. This irritated her immensely, being ignored had never sat well with her. She took a deep breath, making a decision. She knew she should have continued asking him a series of questions to somehow get a better understanding of why he was back in town, but the need to have a reaction out of him prevailed.

"Why did you decide to come back?" she asked bluntly, eyes locked on him. Butch immediately stopped scrolling. He finally raised his gaze from his phone and her expression told him that was exactly what she was expecting.

He grinned, raising both of eyebrows.

"Sorry, Pinky. My whole attention is on you now" he joked seductively, moving closer to her, his phone forgotten in his lap.

Blossom stayed put, not wanting to show him how satisfied she was for finally capturing his attention.

"So a new power…" she tried with not much conviction, ignoring how his body was leaning towards her.

"I'll show you mine, if you show me yours".

She deliberately overlooked all the possible insinuations, that sentence was carrying. She got on her knees to better face him and simply decided that blowing a cloud of ice was the easiest answer.

Shiny flakes surrounded them for a second, illuminated by sun rays, before disappearing into thin air.

"During the years, I also learnt to summon ice through my hands, on good days I can build entire things out of ice" she closed her hands together, one over the other, and when she opened them a small snow ball was resting on her palm.

Butch was watching her with fascination, a concentrated expression on his face. He picked the snow ball from her hand and examined it with attention.

"You are so cool, Pinky" he stated, voice lacking any kind of mockery. He was genuinely complimenting her and Blossom almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. She felt her cheeks getting warmer and she found herself incredibly pleased with that reaction.

"You turn" she quickly said, trying to diffuse a bit the situation. She still had to completely wrap her head around the fact that a Rowdyruff boy had given her a real compliment.

"Throw a snow ball at me" he straightened his back, creating some space between them.

Blossom must have thrown him a weird look because Butch nodded his head in encouragement.

"Just do it, Pinky".

A white ball formed on her hand, she looked at him for consent and when he nodded again she threw it at him. A green shield between them, the ball crashed against it becoming white dust. She almost jumped in her seat, she knew she had seen the shield before but she still hadn't been ready to its appearance.

"Marvelous" she whispered enraptured by the glowing green screen in front of her eyes. Butch was smirking behind it, an incredibly smug expression on his face.

"Pretty neat, un?" she nodded absentmindedly, leaning towards it.

"Can I?" she asked raising her hand and before Butch even gave her consent, she was touching it. It felt funny, her fingertips tickling at the touch. It was incredibly fascinating, it seemed to be made by some kind of energy.

She was carefully studying it when, with no warnings, it disappeared.

She fell forward at the sudden loss of support.

Butch immediately grabbed her arm, avoiding her an embarrassing dive in his lap.

"Careful ice princess" he joked and Blossom was too busy trying to fight down a new wave of heat to formulate a coherent response. She was still in Butch grip, when she spotted a red spot on the side of his neck. She took an entire second to realize it was a hickey. She immediately averted her gaze, but it was too late.

Butch had noticed how her eyes had fall to that particular spot and she was sure her cheeks were on fire. She didn't know if she was more embarrassed for having been caught staring at his hickey, or because it was an actual hickey.

On butch.

A hickey on Butch.

That she had been caught staring at.

How worse could it get?

He got even closer and this time Blossom couldn't help but fidgeting.

"Don't worry" he said in a whisper, his voice deeper than usual, a mischievous glint in his eyes "you were definitely a better dancing partner than her".

Blossom took way too long to realize what he was talking about. Her eyes immediately fell back on his neck, on that red mark on his tanned skin.

"I-I… don't care about your romantic escapades, Butch" she only stuttered a bit. She wasn't proud of it, but at least she had been able to formulate a sentence.

"Oh, Pinky, you are adorable. There was nothing romantic about it"  
Blossom was now one hundred percent positive her face had reached the color of her hair.

She freed herself from his hold on her harm, and started playing with her hair uncomfortably. Butch was still way too close and she needed air. It was hot and her hair was not helping. She started gathering it in a single lock, ready to put her bow back in its place when she was stopped.

The red fabric slipping in one slick movement from her fingers to his.

"Don't".

"I like it down" he added after a second as if trying to answer her puzzled look.

"I don't, my hair is a mess" her voice was firm, confident. She was trying her best not to show him how uncomfortable that situation was becoming for her. Plus, she wasn't lying, the flying had really done a number on her red mane. She knew she must have looked awful, with her hair all disheveled.

"It reminds me of our first encounter" his voice full of innuendos and things unsaid. Blossom perfectly remembered every minute of that night. She knew her hair had been sweaty and messy. She knew where his hands had been and how she had welcomed them. Above all, she knew he had brought it up just to fuel her embarrassment.

She stood up, finally putting some distance between them. Butch did the same, and again she was reminded of how much taller he was. That didn't help in her attempts to grab her bow back. It was hanging lazily from his raised hand, red against the blue sky behind it.

"Give it back" she ordered, shame mixing with irritation. She tried to catch it one more time, but Butch quickly anchored her down, grabbing her waist.

"Relax, babe" she heard him saying next to her ear, her chest now pressed against his. If she had wanted to put some space between them by standing up, that plan had completely back fired. His scent invaded her space, he smelled of tobacco and something sweet, but not quite. Like grapefruit. His scent vaguely reminded her of grapefruit.

She knew Butch had very little respect for personal space. He had been grabbing her since that very first night. That didn't make her uncomfortable per se, not as much as discussing his hickey, however it was much easier to ignore his flirting when he was a few feet away from her than when he was standing so close. He was still a boy and she was very aware of that.

Suddenly, Butch grip weakened. She could barely feel his hand on her.

"You know I will not hurt you, right?" he said out of the blue.

Blossom looked up at him confused, but when her eyes crossed his, realization dawned on her.

He had let her go, because he thought she was afraid. He thought she was worried he would attack her.

That had never crossed her mind, not once since she had met him that day.

She was thinking about his hand on her lower back, his chest pressed to hers and his warm breath mixing with hers. He had confused her agitation for having a boy at such a close proximity for fear, and for that she almost felt sorry.

"Butch" she whispered, her voice soft and reassuring "I know".

Butch eyes widened, his lips slowly stretched in a smile. Blossom felt once again the hand on her lower back.

"I gotta go, but be patient. I will show you all my scandalous ideas of fun" it all lasted less than a second. In a wink, he was in the sky and Blossom almost fell, suddenly missing his support, her legs weak and unstable.

He disappeared a second later, green mixing with the blue of the sky.

She took the whole way home to realize he had never given her the bow back.

 


	7. Chapter 7

 

"Any news?" it could have looked like such an innocuous question, but Blossom perfectly knew what Bubbles was implying.

She had dreaded that conversation since the moment her sisters had advanced that crazy plan of theirs.

"You have seen him again, right?" Buttercup, predictably, got immediately to the point. Blossom remained silent, trying to recollect her thoughts on what was worth sharing and what should have instead remained private. Silence that must have lasted a moment too long. Both sisters were now staring at her, one with a curios look on her face, the other definitely showing more impatience than curiosity.

"So?" Buttercup snapped, "Did you make him talk?".

"It's not that easy, Buttercup" it really wasn't. She could have done a better job, that was probably true, but she still hadn't found the right moment to put forward the right questions. Moreover, Butch seemed to have this additional superpower of making her mind go blank every time she tried to think strategically.

"What do you even do together?" Buttercup's agitation was rising and Bubbles had wisely stepped in between them.

"Why are you so worried?" Blossom was also getting defensive, it was a childish way to avoid answering uncomfortable questions, and she knew it, but it wasn't always easy to be the adult.

"Should I remind you, it's Butch we are talking about? Butch! The guy who not once, but twice beat me to unconsciousness. Excuse me for being a little worried" Buttercup sarcasm was pungent, resentment evident in her voice.

Bubbles took another step forward, physically positioning herself between her sisters before thing could escalate further. Blossom and Buttercup didn't fight often, but when they did it usually went sour really quick.

"Blossom, Buttercup is worried because she cares about you. Buttercup, what Blossom is doing is neither easy nor it can be planned, you can't rush her".

If ask to bet money on only one out of the three Powerpuff girls, Blossom knew very few would choose Bubbles, and wrongly so. If Bubbles was able to stand straight, with no fear, in front of her and Buttercup when they were both angry and going crazy, there were very few things she wouldn't be able to face.

The pink and the green Powerpuffs seemed to suddenly woke up, realizing the discussion had taken a path neither of them had wanted. They both took a very deep breath and their stance relaxed.

"Sorry, Leader Girl. I just… don't want him to hurt you" Buttercup was looking at the ground, her lips tight and a guilty expression on her face.

"I know, Butters it's…" Blossom sighed, she had to spit it out if she wanted some help. "It's not working. I don't know how to make him talk" she finally said and her chest felt immediately lighter. She collapsed on the sofa and soon her sisters were at both of her sides.

"Blossom, don't worry. He must have told you something" Bubbles voice was comforting, encouraging, but Blossom scrolled her head. Very little of what Butch had told her could be considered valuable.

"Well, he did tell me they had spent the last few years in Citisville"

"Citisville? How did we miss it?" Buttercup stole those words directly from her mouth. She had thought exactly that when Butch had told her. "They have been living so close, and yet we have never heard about them, not once".

"They must have laid low, not getting involved in big crimes, or crimes at all" Blossom finished Buttercup's train of thoughts and both of her sisters nodded. "I carried out a bit of research" she then added a bit hesitantly.

"Shockingly".

She ignored Buttercup's comment, she had wanted to share what she had found out when she actually had any information worth sharing, but apparently that moment had come much earlier than she had anticipated.

"I called Citisville high school. There were indeed three twins attending last year, and their description corresponds to the one of the Rowdyruff boys".

"They went to high school?" and again, Buttercup surprise was very similar to what Blossom had felt after discovering that little fact.

"Oh, Buttercup you are so indelicate. Even villains deserve an education" Buttercup was ready to answer Bubbles, probably with a reply filled with sarcasm and profanities, when Blossom continued.

"The school also told me they moved out of town before the end of the school year. One day they were attending classes like any other student, the next day they were gone" and that was everything she knew.

It wasn't much, she had repeated that little bit of information in her head a dozens of times. Spelling it out loud maybe could help her gaining a new perspective.

Silence spread between them.

Butch was now a part of her life. She could picture him all grown up, she knew how his voice had changed and his powers evolved. The same couldn't be said for her sisters. For them, the Rowdyruff boys were the still those little boys they used to fight as kids. She knew it was much more difficult for them to metabolize what she had just said, to actually picture them as normal, functioning teenagers who did normal stuff like …attending high school.

"What do we know from this? What deductions can we make?" Blossom tried, a brainstorming session couldn't really hurt.

"They were apparently living a normal life in Citisville" Buttercup supplied after a few seconds.

"Until something happened and they had to leave" Bubbles continued.

"And they came back to Townsville. A town they had been avoiding for almost ten years" Blossom concluded.

"The question is  _why_? And I don't know how to make him tell me" she sighed and Bubbles' hand was soon on her shoulder.

"He needs to trust you" she suggested, her voice hinting she wasn't too sure how Blossom would react at those words. However, Blossom knew Bubbles was right, she usually was. She knew that if she had a secret to protect, she wouldn't go around telling it to the first passerby, and she also knew what Bubbles was implying.

Trust takes time to be built.

She had wanted to ask how, how was she supposed to gain his trust, if he kept disappearing, to show up a day later, shake her worlds upside down and then run away once again.

However, all those words were lost when the beeping of the hotline forcefully filled the room.

Buttercup was the closest one to the phone, she picked it up and talked for a few seconds. A series of "yes" coming out of her mouth.

"We'll be there" she hung it before turning towards her sisters.

"Four monsters. Maybe five. Maybe six. At the harbor" they were already up in the air heading towards the door when Blossom stopped in her tracks, causing Bubbles to crash against her.

"Wait! The uniforms!".

Buttercup grunted, both hands in the air. "Is this really necessary?".

"They are tailored made…" she tried a bit sheepishly. She wasn't going to let go of that opportunity. For once, they could do things the proper way. Bubbles was probably agreeing with her, even if for different reasons.

"Fine!" a flash of blue later, Bubbles was holding in her hands a pink, a blue and a green uniform.

 

* * *

 

Upon arriving, they had followed their standard routine. Buttercup and Bubbles had distracted the monsters, while Blossom had helped to bring everyone into safety. Civilians were always their priority, no matter the situation. They couldn't risk that any of their actions could involuntarily cause harm.

She had quickly communicated the fallacy in the monster barrier and technicians were at work. It was the second time that month, and that made it a very strange occurrence. The barrier had worked without a single problem for years.

Once the area was completely civilian free, she had rejoined her sisters. The four, maybe five, maybe six monsters had turned out to be at least ten, and that was a conservative estimate. Blossom had lost count, but she was sure they had been fighting those disgusting creatures for at least an hour, and more kept coming.

"I love this!" Buttercup screamed pointing at what she was wearing. Blossom nodded proudly, it was really something else fighting in clothes that were made to accommodate their every move and adapted to their superpowers.

The monsters were all very similar, even if they differed in size. They had way too many teeth, hard reptile skin and long tails. They looked like some sort of dinosaur, but with spikes all over their back and more than a few pairs of eyes. They weren't particularly dangerous taken one by one, her sisters and she had dealt with much worse in the past, but she had to admit the whole fight was starting to take its toll on her.

"Blossom be careful!" she quickly registered Buttercup's warning, before ducking a huge tail. It crashed against the ground leaving its mark behind. However, she had barely the time to take one breath before being hit right in the stomach.

Everything went black, as it usually did. It didn't matter how many years of experience she had, or how many fights she had won in the past, there was no way to prepare yourself to the feeling of air being sucked out of you, pain exploding in your chest and reaching every part of your body, and sparkles of electricity filling your vision.

It took her a few seconds to realize she was lying on the ground, hard cement cutting her skin, her hand on her stomach in the futile attempt to lessen the pain and her eyes shut. She heard a scream followed by a series of profanities and she saw a blast of green light even behind her closed lids.

She felt a cold hand on her forehead and when she finally looked up, she was met by Bubbles' big, blue eyes.

"Everything ok, Blossy?" her sister's breath was labored and her face stained with dirt. Blossom nodded, that little movement costed her more energy than she thought. She took a deep breath and nodded again, this time to support her answer she slowly tried to stand up, Bubbles at her side ready to help her.

"How many are left?" she questioned, her voice was almost foreign to her ears, it came out raspy and low.

"I think this big guy is the last one" and indeed, it was big. Much bigger than his predecessors. Buttercup appeared at her side, she was also breathing erratically.

"This motherfucker has two tails, not one" she commented looking at Blossom with a worried look. She knew it was Buttercup's way to ask if she was ok.

"I have to work on my reflexes" she weakly joked.

Buttercup smirked and her face softened, "How do we take him down Leader Girl?".

Blossom straightened her back and unconsciously brought both hands on her hips. Every part of her body ached for the collision of a few seconds before. She purposely ignored the pain and put on her best determined expression. It was time to put a stop to that fight.

"His weak point is his stomach, it's where his skin is the softest" she reasoned aloud. They just had to coordinate that last blow to finally close that chapter. "I will freeze his tails. Bubbles you distract him, you want his eyes up in the sky and when he isn't looking, Buttercup you hit him right in the stomach, as hard as you can, ready?" both sisters nodded, her hands glowed pink in anticipation.

"Go!".

 

* * *

 

"Blossom, over here! Just a few questions from your fans!"

Blossom walked confident and with her head high up.

"Blossom, a smile for the camera!"

She knew her bow was half undone, her uniform a mess and her face probably covered with cuts and dirt, but she didn't care. They had saved the city, once again.

"Blossom!" "Blossom!" "Blossom!"

She could hear her name thrown all around her, and she was ignoring every single reporter. Not only she still needed to sort out a few things with the police, she hated the press.

They always managed to ask irrelevant questions and turn her words to their favor. Plus, she wasn't really fond of sharing her private life.

The public had seen her sisters and her grown from the little kids they once had been to young women, and this let them believe they knew everything about the Powerpuff girls or had the right to.

Sometimes fan even turned out to be real psychopaths, like that Lenny Baxter, a self-proclaimed die-hard Powerpuffs fan, who ended up imprisoning them just for the thrill of completing his collection.

She spotted in the crowd the person she was looking for and quickened her pace.

"Everything ok, Captain?" she asked approaching a tall man in a pristine uniform.

Townsville Police Captain, Captain Redfort, wasn't a particularly smart man, Blossom found him patronizing and a bit oblivious to the implication of his words. However, he did his job. He was organized, methodical and knew how to run a team.

He was indeed incredibly tall, Blossom had to almost bend her neck when talking to him. He had wide shoulders, big hands and a strong, defined jaw. He did look like your typical marine, his appearance was definitely suited for his role.

"Oh, Blossom! Good job today out there" she smiled kindly and accepted the compliment. He was busy filling some kind of form, the medals on his chest were shining under the sun. Next to him, Blossom felt for a second even dirtier.

"I wanted to ask you about-"

"The barrier? You were right about it" he cut her off, eyes still glued on the paper in his hands. She had communicated her suspects at the very beginning of the fight, asking the police to run a check. Her suspicions had turned out to be correct.

"It was sabotaged, then" she said aloud, more to herself than for confirmation.

"Yes, my men are investigating, but they yet have to find any useful hint. The first time it happened we thought the burns were the result of a was a short-circuit, I guessed we were wrong" he was referring to the machine who kept the barrier up, it was located in a little warehouse just outside the city.

He finally looked up, however Blossom's soon realize his attention was not on her, but on a certain something behind her shoulders.

"Burns?"

"Yes, the main interface was completely burnt" Blossom eyes' widened.

"Just like the cameras at the museum" she commented, her brain putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The captain ignored her or seemed not to register her words.

He started to fidget, sign he was getting impatient. Blossom threw a quick look behind her shoulders to realize what was going on. Behind them a group of journalists had gathered and were trying to capture their attention.

Captain Redfort loved the press as much as she hated it. Not only that, he was able to make everything about him, she was sure that night she would have seen on the TV a heroic retell of how he and his men had successfully protected Townsville.

"Captain, aren't there security cameras?"

"Well, no"

"Guards who could have seen something?"

"No..."

"Isn't the place surveilled in any way?"

"Why would it be?"

Maybe because the technology inside was protecting the entire city? Blossom stopped herself from asking that, she didn't want to start a discussion with him, not after a fight and not when cameras and microphones were around.

"Can you please keep me informed about the investigations?" she asked admitting defeat, she had completely lost his attention. She also wasn't particularly hopeful about the police finding any more information, but it was worth pursuing every path.

The Captain nodded as if realizing only in that moment he had been talking to her, he gave her a quick pat on the shoulder, before passing her.

She turned just in time to see him posing in front of a camera already giving his best smile. She scrolled her head, she was ready to go home, take a long bath and wash away all the sweat and dirt of the day.

She had taken only one single step, when she found herself face to face with the lens of a huge camera, a microphone held out under her mouth and a blonde, young woman at her side. Blossom immediately noted she had red lipstick on her teeth.

She had the urge to jump in the air and disappear in the sky. She had been so good, she had almost make it without giving a single interview.

"Blossom! You did it again! How are you feeling?" the microphone moved from the young woman to her and Blossom barely had the time to open her mouth before it was taken away.

"Wonderful! But now let's talk about something a bit more joyful" she almost rolled her eyes, only her strong self-control stopped her from doing so. She perfectly knew where the reporter was going.

"The town gala is coming up, are you excited?" again the microphone moved like a ping-pong ball between them.

"It's a great occasion to raise funds for less fortun-"

"Yes, yes we know, but what we don't know is: who is taking you to the ball?"

Why hadn't she flown away yet?

Not only it was nobody's business with who she was going to the ball, the question had also been formulated in awful way. She was the one invited to the gala, why would anybody be supposed to  _take her_  there? Blossom tried to calm herself down, but with no result. She really wanted to grab that microphone and scream in it.

"Nobody is taking me. I am taking myself why would I-" she was cut off before she even had the chance to continue with her rant. The blonde woman physically stepping between her and the camera to look right in the lens.

"Did you hear, boys of Townsville? Our favorite super-heroine needs a knight for the night!"

 

* * *

 

She wanted to collapse. Apparently her interview had been live and while she was grateful the reporter had stepped in front of her, interrupting what could have easily had become a scene, it was really hard for her to find any other reason to be thankful.

Her phone had already frozen twice, she kept receiving messages on every single social media profile she had. She quickly learned people were doing everything TV was telling them to.

She had received over one hundred texts of guys (and some girls) willing to bring her to the ball. Some were declaring their never-ending love for her, others were just feeling sorry and offering their services.

This of course wasn't relegated to the online world, she had lost count of how many times she had been stopped while walking to the café. Even when they had stepped foot in the little bar, the atmosphere had completely change.

"Blossom, this is hilarious"

"I am glad you are having fun watching me go through this hell"

"You shouldn't have screamed at that last guy who approached you, he just wanted to be your knight for the night" Bubbles giggled. They were both finding that situation incredibly amusing.

"I'll get your drinks, go sit down" she ordered leaving little objections. Bubbles and Buttercup obeyed and left her alone at the counter.

She toyed with the sugar waiting for her drink. She was still in her superhero uniform, covered in dirt, bruises and cuts. She usually would have felt self-conscious about going around like that, but at the moment she really couldn't care less. She was exhausted, irritated and she needed a long, sweet coffee.

"A large latte?" she took a step forward ready to take the cup out of the hand of the barista when a familiar face appeared behind the counter.

"Adam?" the blond almost spilled her drink fort the surprise. He smiled sheepishly and Blossom accepted the beverage taking it with both hands.

"Blossom, I haven't seen you since that night" she noted he gave her a long look, probably taking in her appearance.

"Long day?" he simply commented after a few seconds.

"You have no idea" she didn't want to explain why she was in that state, if he was clever enough he would be able to do two plus two alone.

"I looked for you, you know" he was now leaning towards her, both elbows on the counter.

"Well, duty called" she smiled back. Was he flirting with her? He wasn't bad looking, she thought. He had messy blond hair, freckles and those dimples sure were cute. Why hadn't she noted that night at the club?

"It was a pity. I would have loved to dance with you" yes, he was definitely flirting.

"Sure it was" she bit her lips, perfectly knowing what she was doing. She didn't know why, but she felt good about it. She couldn't have looked worse, and yet a guy was flirting with her. Quite refreshing.

Another barista showed up and gave her the drinks of her sisters. She played with the plastic lid for a few seconds. She had no more reasons to stay there, she was almost ready to say her goodbyes when he spoke again.

"My turn is over in a few minutes, if you want you can tell me everything about your long day".

 

 

"Stop it, you two!" her arrival to the table had been met with low whistles and giggles. She gave them their respective drink - black coffee for Buttercup and chai latte for Bubbles - and sat down.

"Found your knight for night?"

"Bubbles, please!"

"Even you have to admit it's incredibly catchy!" Blossom rolled her eyes taking a first sip of her latte. She almost moaned, it tasted incredible. She took another long sip, drinking almost half of it.

"No one can blame you sis, Adam is a hottie" Buttercup nodded approvingly.

"We were just…"

"Flirting. Tell us everything about it"

Blossom tried to keep up her serious demure, she really tried. Unfortunately, that little smile that appeared on her lips was enough to crumble all her defenses.

"He is incredibly cute, isn't he?" she played with the straw throwing a look at the counter. He was serving another client, a bright smile on his face. He looked like the classical boy you want to take home to your parents, perfect teeth, tanned skin and wavy blond hair.

"Are you taking him to the ball?" Bubbles' voice woke her up from her starting. She coughed embarrassed and brought back her attention on her sisters.

"I- I haven't thought about it"

"Bloss don't overthink this as usual. He is hot, you are hot. You could be hot together" Buttercup pragmatism surprised her sometimes. "Plus, it would surely put a stop to all this nonsense" her sister pointed with her chin to Blossom's phone on the table, which was still vibrating every two seconds.

"He is a decent guy, I guess"

"Decent? Adam is a gem, Blossy! He is sweet, he is funny, he is the captain of the swimming team, and he is coming this way! Let's go Butters!" before she could even blink, Bubbles and Buttercup were on their feet, she received a wink and two thumbs up before being left alone.

"I hope you have a sweet tooth, because I won't be able to finish this cheese cake alone" she was presented with the biggest slice of cake she had ever seen. It looked delicious, with fresh raspberries on top and a creamy layer where a fork was ready to be drowned.

"You just made my day incredibly better" she almost groaned in adoration. When she brought the first bite to her lips, she had to stifled a moan.

"If I only knew it was that easy to impress you" he joked taking a bite of his own.

It should have been an incredible intimate situation, but Blossom didn't feel any awkwardness or discomfort. She wanted to enjoy any little pleasure that day could offer.

"So, before you talk about your day, I have a confession to make"

"Shoot" she commented distracted, trying to catch a raspberry.

"I saw your interview" she chocked on saliva and cheesecake, exploding in a fit of coughs. She took a few moments to catch her breath and when she finally calmed down and met his eyes, he was looking at her with a worried expression.

"Please, bury me" she commented, both hands on her face.

"Why? What the interviewer did was not only completely uncalled for, it was also incredibly rude" he sounded genuine and Blossom found that little kindness incredibly attractive.

"Apparently half the men in this town didn't think so and now would love to be my knight for the night" damn Bubbles, it was indeed catchy.

"Well, I can't blame them" he lowered his gaze, fumbling with his fork on the plate and Blossom felt her cheeks warm up. That was her clue, it was the perfect moment to ask him.

"This gala is a complete bore, I hate it. It's full of people that brag about how big is their house, how fat is their bank account, and how young is wife number three. I am sure you would hate it too. The thing is… we can, maybe, hate it together?" that hadn't gone the way she had wanted. In her head, she had sounded way more articulated and eloquent.

"Is this a weird attempt of asking me to the gala?" he raised his eyes to meet hers, a shy smile on his lips.

"Is it working?"

"I would be honored to accompany the prettiest girl in Townsville"

Blossom rewarded him with a smile of her own. Her mouth tasted like raspberries and coffee, she felt butterflies in her chest, and her day had turned out to be much better that it had initially started.

"So this means I will be-"

"Please, don't say it"

"I will be your knight for night".

 

* * *

 

When she left the café the sun was already setting. It was that weird time of the day when it wasn't dark, but the light had lost his brightness and turned into that bluish color.

She could feel the fight of that day in her bones. Sat in the comfortable booth of the coffee-shop, she had been able to relax and rest, but now, up in the sky, she was perfectly aware of every part of her body that was hurting.

Not only that, she was starving. Adam had offered her another slice of cheesecake which she had kindly refused, a decision she regretted immensely. Her stomach grumbled as if in agreement and she tried to quicken her pace.

It was getting darker and darker by the minute and she couldn't wait to be home.

However, the universe had a completely different plan for her.

She saw a green flash in the corner of her eye, and she almost grunted in frustration.

"Not now" she whined out loud.

"Happy to see you too, Pinky" Blossom was forced to stop. Butch threw her a quick look, very similar to what Adam had done a few hours earlier. She saw his expression darkened, curiosity mixing with concern. She must have really looked like hell.

"How do you always find me?" she asked, while self-consciously adjusting the bow on her head.

"I told I get this feeling when you are around" she scrolled her head unimpressed. She was in no mood for his jokes.

"Butch is late, let me go" she tried to pass him, but he anticipated her moves moving with her.

"I can show you" she stopped not expecting that reply.

"What do you mean?" Butch had opened his mouth to answer when her stomach decided that was exactly the perfect moment to erupt in a series of unladylike grumbles. She quickly brought both of her hands on her belly, in a pointless attempt to stop the rumbling.

"Hungry?" he asked with an amused smirk on his lips.

"Terribly so" she whined, lips in a pout. He flew a little closer and his smirk turned in a smile.

"Follow me" he simply stated, green light forming around his feet.

"Where?"

"To dinner, and then if you are a good little girl, I'll show how I am always able to find you" he winked and flew away, in the opposite direction of her home, leaving behind a green streak.

Blossom had less than a second to decide what to do before losing him in the dark sky. In the end, her body decided for her. She was still registering Butch words in her head, when she realized she was following him.

Later, she would tell herself she had done so because she was curious, she wanted to know how he seemed to be able to always know where she was.

However, if she had to be totally honest, Butch had won her over at the prospect of dinner.


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

When she took the first bite of the hamburger in front of her eyes, she couldn't stop a long throaty moan from escaping her lips.

"So, what were you saying about flying all the way 'till Citisville for a stupid burger?" Butch was watching her with a smug expression, that ever present smirk on his lips.

She had been complaining since the moment they had stepped foot in the diner - if that God forgotten hole (Blossom's words) could even be called a diner.

The building really did look awful. It was a sketchy place, at the end of a sketchy alley, in one of the sketchiest neighborhood of Citisville.

Everything was dark if not for the sign of the restaurant, which had lost a couple of letters. Stray cats were feasting straight out of the garbage a few feet from the entrance and Blossom had never been more ready to leave.

However, Butch had been deaf to all of her protests and in the end she had been forced to follow him through the door. Inside, the place had looked even worse. It was small, illuminated by cheap neon lights, the floor was oily and the guy behind the counter very likely high. It was well past nine and they were the only customers, something that Blossom had pointed out repeatedly.

She didn't even know how she had ended up with a burger in front of her, or how he had convinced her to give it a go, but when she had taken the first bite – very reluctantly – she melted right there in the spot.

"Don't ever call it stupid" she warned, her mouth full, bringing the hamburger closer to her as if trying to protect it. Butch laughed wholeheartedly, the sound filling the entire place.

To her defense, how could she imagine that in a place like that, they could make a burger as heavenly as the one she was holding in her hands?

"So… you like it?" Butch asked casually in between bites.

"Like it? I want to marry this burger. This is the best burger I ever had. Is it bad if I order another one?" Blossom stretched her neck to eye the counter. She was really considering having a second one. That day had been exhausting and she was starving.

"You should have listened to me instead of bitching all the way here" she winced and the word "bitching", but she really didn't have it in her to start an argument and she had other priorities at the moment, like the rest of that yummy burger in her plate.

"Yes, maybe I should start trusting you more" she stated before taking another large bite.

When she received no answer, she raised her eyes and immediately met his. She cleared her throat feeling unease under Butch's scrutiny. He was looking at her with a weird expression on his face and, for once, she was unable to read him. He looked deep in thoughts, his eyes settled on her, lips slightly parted.

"Yeah… you should" he whispered after more than what should have been socially acceptable, voice deep and dark, and for a moment Blossom even forgot to what he was referring to.

However, before she could answer, his attitude changed. He attempted a smile, which was anything but genuine, and with no warnings she saw him reaching in her plate and stole a bunch of her fries.

"Hey, those are mine!You should have got your own!" she complained, thankful they had something else to bicker about. It wasn't the first time he had an abrupt mood change, it usually only lasted a moment, he would lose his playful nature and his gaze would darken, a second later he would be back being his cocky self.

"You took large fries, you knew this would happen" he mocked taking another couple of sticks.

"Don't flatter yourself, I did it out of habit, Buttercup always steals mine" she tried to explain, her words hiding the ugly truth: she was ok with it. It being Butch and her sharing food. She couldn't help but find that whole situation slightly amusing, if not completely surreal, she was sharing fries with  _Butch_ , her archenemy… if she could still call him that. Something that only a few days before she would have never thought could happen.

"Whatever is the reason, you are sharing, and you know what they say about sharing" he wiggled his eyebrows and Blossom was at loss of any snarky reply.

She was weirdly enjoying herself. She had almost forgotten all her fatigue or the fact that she was still wearing her uniform.

"Why did you show up tonight?" she asked after a few minutes of silence. Both were done eating, and Butch was mindlessly playing with his straw.

He shrugged and took a long sip of coke before answering.

"I had the feeling you needed a distraction" he said those words as evenly as possible, no mockery or malice behind them.

"So… you saw the fight" she muttered, both hands around her own cup, ice pickling the surface.

"Yup. Great uniform by the way, super sexy"

"Considered it burnt"

"The less clothes, the better" he cheered happily, his soda up in the air, and Blossom felt her eyes rolling before she could even realize it. It was becoming almost a reflex around him.

They were silent once again. It wasn't uncomfortable, but they were both waiting for something. The night had arrived to that all too familiar place where only two options were available: going home or finding a reason not to.

"Did you find a date?" he finally asked, casual voice and curios eyes.

"What?" she asked, her brain barely registering his words.

"Did you find a date? For that ball thingy" Blossom's bubbles burst right at that moment. She was suddenly taken back to that afternoon and that horrible interview. She collapsed in the booth, eyes dancing around the room.

"That was awful" she covered her face with both hands and grunted in a very unladylike fashion.

"Well, if you are in need of a charming date, I can be your man. It would be the perfect venue for my comeback, whatcha say?"

Blossom was deeply grateful he hadn't try to make fun of the situation, which was by itself pretty tragic.

"I am sure the boy who sole handedly destroyed half the town hall would be welcomed with open arms" she lowered her hands and met his eyes.

"You remember that" he said in a whisper, leaning in just a bit and showing a bit too much excitement.

"Well, not really. I ended up unconscious and woke up at the hospital that time" they exchanged amused smiles. "While I appreciate the offer, it is no longer necessary" she concluded feeling his question needed an appropriate answer.

What followed was a long silence. An abrupt cut from their friendly banter of just a few seconds before. His eyes never left her to the point where she almost felt uncomfortable. He was looking at her, but he wasn't, gaze distant and lost in thoughts. The more the silence lasted, the more lost she felt. She really couldn't understand what was going on in his mind.

"Damn, I would have loved being your date" he suddenly said, his words hasty and light, eyes still locked with hers.

Then, as if nothing had just happened, he stood up and started putting on his jacket. He took his time to adjust the sleeves and finally looked down at her.

"Ready for your lesson?"

 

 

* * *

 

 

"Why do we always end up on a rooftop?" she said out loud, words lost in the darkness of the night. In front of her eyes, the city at night was a really enchanting picture. Thousands of lights shining to form what was a real city of stars.

Citisville was bigger, more frenetic than Townsville, but on top of that building, far away from the everyday chaos, she lost sense of where she was. It really was a lovely view.

"Nice, isn'it? I used to come here all the time".

"I-it's ok" she replied with nonchalance, clearing her throats for having being caught staring. She had already flattered him with the burger, for one night it was enough. "Should we start?" she added. The dinner had been nice and she had been starving, but she had to somehow justified the fact that it was well past ten and she was on a rooftop in the middle of Citisville with Butch.

"Well, listen carefully Pinky and try to keep up" he walked in her direction and positioned himself right in front of her.

She snorted, but bit her tongue to avoid a futile argument.

"You wanna know how I always find you, correct?"

"I would rather know why you always look for me, but yes, go on" he really did seem to be able to find her wherever she was and while this unsettled her, it also made her genuinely curious. If Butch knew something she didn't, she was all ears.

"Well, when I told I get a weird feeling when you are around… I wasn't joking" Blossom took a second to understand what he was trying to tell her and when she did, her mouth fell open.

"You…you can sense me?"

"Yes, kinda" he shrugged and ruffled his hair with one hand "I'll show you! Close your eyes".

Blossom remained unfazed at his newly found energy. She threw him a impassive look and crossed her arm to deliver the message.

"What?"

"Do I really have to spell it out loud? I am not closing my eyes when you are around".

"What?!" he almost screamed, erupting in a very loud series of grunts. "Pinky, if I wanted to hurt you, don't you think I would have done it by now? Just a guess!" she had never seen him so exasperated, his voice a pitch higher and his hands moving frenetically to accompany his words.

She took a step backwards not expecting such a strong reaction to something she thought was obvious and Butch seemed to notice, because he tried to calm himself down taking a deep breath.

"Listen, this won't work if you don't close your eyes. I promise you nothing will happen" he stressed those words to give them more meaning.

She had always been good at reading people, but with Butch it was a total different story. In her head she played a thousand of different scenarios, trying to weight all the possible different outcomes. However, in the end, it all came down to one question: was she ready to trust him?

She closed her eyes.

Even behind closed lids she could sense his surprise. She could swear she had almost heard him gasp.

"Ok. Let's do this" she could feel him pace around her, with only her ears to assess the situation she was being careful to pick up any noise. "This whole thing is very similar to super hearing. When you are trying to isolate a specific sound you concentrate on the source of that sound, correct?" she had already noticed his voice, but in the silence of the night it sounder even deeper, but with a nice warm quality to it, that made it inviting, almost sweet. "Well, this time is not a sound… how can I explain this?" she heard him swearing a couple of times and taking some steps in the opposite direction before feeling his presence once again, this time much closer. Next thing she knew, his hand was on her shoulder. She immediately tensed, every muscle in her body now tight.

"Please, don't freak out" he whispered, his voice barely audible "I will not hurt you" he added after a few seconds, his hand still on her shoulder.

When he was sure she was not going to kick him for having touched her, he spoke again: "Now tell me, what are you feeling?".

_What was she feeling?_

The ticklish cold night on her bare arms, the far noises of the traffic, her heart beat accelerating, butch's rhythmical breath, his smell, his warm hand on her skin…

"Your hand is warm" she tried after what felt like an eternity. No other words coming to mind.

"Yes! Warmth!" he almost startled her with his excitement, apparently he was a very passionate teacher "Now concentrate on this warmth".

She tried to suppress a smile that was fighting its way out and she closed her eyes even tighter, to put all her attention where it was supposed to be. She focused on his fingertips, they felt rough and hot against her skin, she could feel them all. One, two, three, four, five…

Then suddenly, they weren't there anymore.

But they were.

Somehow his warmth was still there. She could still feel it, not on her shoulder, but she knew it was somewhere close.

"Can you feel it?" his voice was exactly where she was expecting him to be.

"Yes…I think I do".

"I am going to move and I want you to follow me" she tried to focus on that lingering feeling and follow it while it moved around her. First to the left, then to the right, again to the right.

"Good job, babe, you are a natural" she let escape an involuntary smile at that comment.

"Let's make it a bit more difficult, no peeking" she was getting the hang of it, she had his presence clear in her mind. She took a step forward, his energy getting stronger and stronger.

She was almost there.

Just one last step.

And she lost it.

"Where are you?" she complained, she had completely lost his traces.

"You just need to concentrate to pick up my energy again" she immediately flew towards the sound of his voice to find nothing.

"Don't follow my voice, my energy is already telling you where I am" she mentally rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. He was getting all Yoda on her. Even worse, she knew he was right.

She had been rushing things. She was many things, patient was not one of them. She just wanted to  _get_  it. If Butch could do it, how come she couldn't?

She took a deep breath.

"What are you feeling, Blossom?" she whispered to herself.

She could feel her feet firm on the ground.

Her hair sticking to her shoulders.

Her own warmth all around her.

And beyond her? She allowed her mind to wander, projecting her attention to the space around her. Then, as if someone had just turned on a switch, she felt him.

It was the same kind of warmth she had felt a few minutes before. It was similar to hers but different. It felt shaky, unstable, and way hotter.

She took a tentative step forward. Everything had gone quiet. She could only hear her breath, heavy and erratic for the effort. He was close, she knew it and this time she was not going to miss him.

She let out some air she didn't know she had been holding, and close her eyes tighter. She moved to the right and took another step. She could feel him moving around her and somehow she knew exactly where to turn.

His presence was stronger with each step. She almost wanted to raise her hands in the air, her fingers tickling in anticipation.

She knew he was within reach.

He was almost there.

Almost.

"Ouch!"

She collided right into something hard. Something hard and incredibly warm.

However, instead of losing him, suddenly she felt him stronger than ever.

She immediately opened her eyes and, as if with sight she had gained back all of her senses, she was suddenly enveloped in his scent. But only when she felt his deep laugh vibrating on her hands, she realized she had bumped right into his chest. She had to looked up to meet his eyes, still slightly disoriented.

"Hey" he whispered, a genuine smile on his face, his hands on her arms to support her.

"Hey" she matched his voice, finding it very hard to say anything else.

"You found me" he added this time with more cheer in his voice.

"I found you? I found you!" she took a step backwards as if burnt, suddenly realizing how close they had been. Butch was smirking – he was always smirking - but she purposely avoided addressing the situation.

"I can still feel it…" she muttered after a few seconds, hands tickling with electricity "It's… it's amazing… You were telling the truth. How does it work?" she couldn't believe her sisters and she had never discovered something like that.

She had to run experiments, speak about it with the Professor and research everything that could be possibly be researched on the matter.

"Told ya I am good boy" he looked for what turned out to be a cigarette and took his time to lighten it. Blossom could see the red tip burning in the darkness of the night.

"Brick has a theory… he says we are sensitive to chemical X and if we concentrate hard enough we are able to sense it in the area around us. It's a neat trick, quite useful in fights too if you wanna know where you team is"

"I have to tell everything to the Professor" she sighed happily ignoring the amused look Butch was throwing her.

"Does he still play crazy scientist?"

"Sometimes…much less anyway. He does the majority of his research at the university nowadays. He is going to make us stay in the lab for days, I can't wait" she muttered more to herself than for Butch to hear.

"You are a little weirdo, Pinky" Butch said those words with fondness, there was no mockery behind them.

They fell in a comfortable silence, both of them lost in thoughts.

Blossom could feel a warm breeze caressing her shoulders. The lights were swaying bright in the dark horizon in a way that was almost hypnotizing. It was a lovely night, it really was.

"Do you miss it?" she felt herself saying. Her voice foreign to her own ears.

"Uhm?" that question seemed to have woken him up. He blinked a few times before looking at her with confusion.

"Citisville…do you miss it?"

"It's right around the corner"

"I know I just thought-" she thought…what? Stupid, stupid Blossom. What was she expecting? Him pouring his heart out? Was she really expecting him to be able to open up? And to her, among all people!

"Sometimes... I miss how careless we were." her inner crisis was suddenly interrupted. She had to take several moments before fully registering his words. Butch eyes went back to the sky, smoke slowly coming out of his mouth to draw abstract motives in the air.

"I had my first football team here, my first time at a club, my first kiss, my first fu-"

"I think I get the gist" Butch laughed and his voice filled the place. "We were just kids, but we got around, you know... As long as we were together everything was fine, and thank God for Brick, he always had a plan for us to get by." everything around them was still, and the air suddenly not as light as a few minutes before.

"You miss a version of yourself more than a place... does it happen to you?" and finally Butch looked at her.

Blossom heart skipped a beat. Butch's eyes had never been more honest. She loudly inhaled air, words failing to come to mind.

"What the fuck am I saying, right?" he tried to laugh it off, his hand already looking for a second a cigarette.

"No, it makes perfect sense, Butch" she immediately said. She wanted to tell him that it was ok, that all he was feeling was legitimate, that even if she couldn't understand what he had been through she was interested in learning about it.

She wanted to tell him all of that, instead she just watched, powerless, as he jumped in the void in front of them.

"Butch!" she screamed immediately looking down. She could see him falling at increasing speed, the ground closer and closer. "Butch! What are you doing?" voice hoarse and aching throat. Why wasn't he flying? She had to do something, she had to.

She was already up in the air when she finally saw his signature green streak appear. Her heartbeat was going crazy. Her hands were still shaking when he reappeared in front of her.

"What the hell?" she screamed, fist ready to punch him. "Are you crazy? I thought you were going to crash!"

"Come on Pinky, you have never let yourself fall?"

"Oh my God, Butch!" she sighed in what was more of a whine rather than a reproach.

"You were worried about me, weren't you?" Butch mocking tone was the last thing Blossom needed. She wanted to punch him right in the face.

"You can crash and-and… well not die, but hurt yourself very seriously for all that I care" even if she was trying to remain serious, relief was evident in her voice and in her face. She just had an adrenaline jump and her body was craving to let go. However, that didn't mean she wasn't angry, and that little smile on Butch's face certainly wasn't helpful in calming her down. She wanted to make sure he was ok, and after that kick him right in the stomach.

"Don't freak out, ok?"

"What-" her words were interrupted by Butch fixing a lock of hair behind her ear. When did he get so close? Blossom raised her eyes to meet his. His hand was still in her hair. She finally exhaled a long breath, any remaining agitation leaving her body.

"You are an idiot"

"Nothing new"

"This is the craziest night I had in a while…"

"Glad I am part of it"

"Part? You are the cause of it all"


	9. Chapter 9

He didn't want to close his eyes.

He was still in the same spot where she had left him. Legs swinging in the emptiness below and eyes fixed on the horizon.

He didn't want to – he couldn't - close his eyes because every time he did, he would see her.

Going home and getting some sleep would have meant being lost in an intricate web of nightmares and dreams all revolving around one specific person.

Blossom figure would forcefully appear in front of him. He would see her red hair falling on her shoulders to partly cover milky skin abused with cuts and bruises. Or her lashes – her long, long lashes – caressing cheeks stained with dried blood. Even her hands with her long delicate fingers had split and red knuckles.

So he waited, until he wasn't alone anymore.

He had felt him coming miles before his arrival, familiar as he was to his brother energy. Once he heard him approach the ground, he stood up with stiffed legs and turned to face him.

"Sorry dad, I missed my curfew".

"I thought I had told you to stay low".

Fuck.

The last thing he wanted was to hear a reproach from his brother. He was tired and confused, he didn't need Brick to make everything worse. Somehow, every time his brother got involved things got more complicated.

With Blossom, things were already pretty difficult, he really didn't need Brick's help.

"Busted" he answered after a few seconds, his bored voice hiding the involuntary agitation that was growing inside his chest. He had to play it cool, defuse the tension, pretend it was not a big deal. He knew he had gone against precise orders, but what was life even about if you didn't break a few rules?

His brother stayed silent, his face impassive. His eyes were glowing red under the shadow of his cap, giving him a sinister aura.

Brick was rarely speaking his mind, and Butch hated that. He was the total opposite. He was direct and always ready to tackle the elephant in the room. He didn't like to skirt around problems because problems were there to be solved, not to be overanalyzed like Brick usually did. It was true that sometimes this made him take very impulsive decisions, making a mess Brick usually had to clean up, but at least he took action which could not always be said for his brother.

"Chill, bro. She doesn't know anything" he added to support his words, hands busy looking for his lighter, a cigarette already between his lips.

"She is going to find out soon Butch and you know it" Brick took a step forward, his voice void of any emotion, if not a little annoyance and Butch perfectly knew why his brother was annoyed.

That whole situation was disrupting the perfect little plan Brick had devised, and anything that didn't go according to plan was never worth pursuing.

Unfortunately, Butch often fell into that category.

"I am just having a little fun, something you forgot how to do apparently".

"Fun? With the Pink Puff? She will send your sorry ass to prison as soon as she has a good reason to" Brick scoffed, mockery evident in his words.

Butch for a second thought about the very first night he saw Blossom. He had had very precise instructions: keep an eye on the only Powerpuff in town without being noticed.

He hadn't recognized her at first, weirdly enough he had been looking for that little kid he had fought against so many years before. Instead he had found a fully grown woman. A very attractive woman, if he had any say on the matter.

Yes, she still had her signature long red hair, and even her bow – smaller in size – was still there, and he was always amazed how, during their weird and random encounters, he would spot a mannerism or two, like the way she loved to put her hands on her hips to assert dominance, or the way she fixed her bow when nervous, that were so inherently  _Blossom_.

That day he remembered she had gone from one side of the city to the other like a spinning top. He had followed her everywhere, observing amused all the little misadventures she was going through. He had behaved, for the most part. He had kept his distance and had hidden when necessary, however, he had known his curiosity would have gotten the best of him them moment she had stepped foot in that club. He needed to see that.

Blossom Utonium in a club.

Nobody would have believed him. He was still planning to stay low, hide, but he needed to see her there. He needed to know just how much things had changed.

Unfortunately, as soon as he saw her dancing, all those good intentions had been soon forgotten.

There were no more Rowdyruff boys or Powerpuff girls. He was just a normal teenage boy, with the self-control of a normal teenage boy.

He remembered every single moment on that dance floor. The way their bodies had moved together, the salty taste of her skin, the sweet smell of her hair… How could he forget it? He had relived it in his mind thousands of times.

They had fought because he had wanted to fight. He had wanted to see  _her_  fight.

She had something, right before leaving him, that had made him decide that he would have seen her again. He had to see her again.

 _"_ _You don't want to see me dead?"_  he had asked her.

 _"No, I don't"_ she had spoken with no hesitation.

"I am being careful" he spoke loud and clear, his eyes meeting his brother's piercing gaze.

Brick was now much closer, with a slow movement he raised his hand and grabbed the cigarette hanging from Butch's lips.

"Butch you are putting us all in danger because you want to fuck her" he opened his fingers and the cigarette hit the ground with a dull thud. "Find a cheap whore, and stop playing around".

Butch didn't know who threw the first hit, most likely him, but Brick certainly hadn't hesitated in reiterating.

They were one all over the other rolling on the floor trying hard to be the one that would come out on top of that fight.

Fighting with Brick was all too familiar. He knew exactly how Brick liked it: his hits were slow, but powerful and precise. He liked to move very little and hit where it was more effective and always waited for the adversary to go first, to surprise him while he was distracted.

Knowing how Brick moved didn't necessarily make it less painful when one of his shot succeeded and he found himself thrown several meters away. His face was pulsing and he could barely open his left eye. He didn't even have the time to stand up because less than a second later, Brick hand was secured tightly around his neck. He felt his feet leaving the ground and his back being pushed against a wall.

Even if Brick was trying to hide it, the effort of the fight was showing on his face. His breath was erratic and Butch could see sweat forming on his forehead.

His brother observed him for a very long second, a silent conversation going on in his head. Then, suddenly, he left his grip and Butch was let free.

"Go home" he whispered looking down, voice raspy and barely audible and Butch should have known better. He should have known it was not wise to anger Brick, he should have listened to his brother and leave. But he rarely did what he knew was right.

"And what should I do?" he asked, words dripping sarcasm. "Hide in that hell hole like Boomer?".

He was ready for another round; it wasn't Brick's decision to decide when the fight was over. They had to break the deadlock that were living in and if fighting was the only way Brick would open his eyes, Butch was more than ready.

"We don't what it's happening to us Brick! We have been here for over a month!" Butch took a step forward but Brick didn't move. Their chests touched but neither took a step backwards.

"You think I don't know it? The answer is here and I seem to be the only one to have a plan".

"Well, maybe your plan is wrong. The episodes are becoming more and more frequent and Boomer almost got killed a few weeks ago for fuck's sake!"

"Why do you always want to fight? I am trying to fix this" those last words were almost a whine. For a second, Brick's voice had cracked and with it all his composure.

Silence was what followed. It was rare for Butch to win a screaming contest, Brick was usually the one with the cutting tongue. However, even if it had been Brick who had lowered his eyes in retreat, Butch didn't really feel like he had won anything.

In that shitty situation, they were all losers.

He took a step backwards, the tension between them turning into awkwardness. They were much more comfortable when beating each other up. Brick straightened his shoulders and look right at Butch, as if waiting for him talk.

There had to be a solution for their problem out there, but they were never going to find it if they kept working alone. Thousands of thoughts crossed Butch's mind in that moment. He knew what he had to do. He had been knowing for a long time.

"The Pink Puff talks a lot… some things are more interesting than others" he felt his chest contract at those words, but he purposely ignored that feeling. In life, sometimes you had to play dirty not to win, but to merely survive.

Silence.

"I can help Brick. I really can. I can make her tell me exactly what we are looking for".

A long silence followed Butch's words. He had tried to sound confident, but inside his stomach was flipped upside down. He kept looking at his brother searching for even the smallest hint of approval.

"I think it could work" Brick finally said and Butch had to stop himself from letting out a sigh of relief.

"Of course it will work, when have I ever disappointed you?" he exulted with fake cockiness. That whole situation was fucked up, but he kept repeating like a mantra that his intentions were good. It was the only way to help his brothers. It was the only way they could have a chance.

Butch closed his eyes, and again Blossom was right there looking at him, disheveled hair, bruised knees and cut lips. He knew Brick was behind all of that, he had probably needed a distraction to act undisturbed. He would do all that was in his power to prevent what had caused her to be in that state from happening again. Maybe, understanding Brick plan could be a step towards that direction.

"Wanna go home?" he asked, brutally cutting that train of thoughts.

"I'll stay. I miss sunrises in Citisville" Brick sat on the edge of the building and Butch looked at his watch. The sun would be up in less than half an hour. He shrugged and sat next to his brother.

They were silent for a while, the sky slowly turning to life, pink light illuminating the sleeping city.

"How is she?" Butch didn't need to ask anything to know who his brother was talking about.

When they were kids, there was this unsaid rule: only Brick could fight against Blossom.

He had enjoyed messing with Buttercup, but he hadn't been obsessed by her. Same couldn't have been said for Brick. At the time, it had been his life mission to defeat Blossom, to humiliate her. Something in their rivalry had been - was - very, very personal.

"She reminds me of you. A total nerd, who likes to complicate life" Butch didn't know what to answer, joking seemed to be the safest route. He and Brick didn't really do  _feelings_ , especially not with each other. Their conversations were mainly about which kind of beer to buy or who was playing basketball on TV that day.

"So why do you look for her?" his brother asked, finally looking towards him.

"I have fun annoying her and she probably spends time with me to max her volunteering hours for extra credit. It's a win-win situation".

"You idiot" Brick lips hinted a smile and his eyes were once again back on the horizon.

"She is different, but she is pretty much the same, you know? She is cool, I like her" those words escaped Butch's mouth without him even realizing it. They remained hung in the air for a long moment.

"But mainly… yeah, I wanna fuck her."

"Who doesn't".

 

 

* * *

 

 

Every time she would close her eyes, she would see him.

Her heart beat would speed up and her palms would get sweaty.

He was falling right in front of her eyes, while she powerless watch him as he quickly approached the ground.

She physically shook that image out of her head and turned the doorknob of the entrance door. It was late and every one was probably sleeping, or so she prayed. She really didn't need a third degree interrogation from the Professor, or worse, her sisters.

"Welcome home, young lady. Had fun?"

Fudge.

"Hey, Bubs. I am really tired, love you, speak tomorrow?" she lamely tried with one foot already on the first step of the stairs. However, Bubbles was fast in reacting, she grabbed Blossom's hand and dragged her to the living room with very little room for protest.

"Guess we are going to speak now" Blossom found herself sat on the sofa, her blonde sister watching her attentively.

"So?" Bubbles huge eyes were sparkling in the darkness of the room. Blossom noticed how her sister had been waiting for her, the tv was on and there was an bowl half full of cherries on the coffee table.

"So what?" she dumbly asked.

"Were you out with him?" Blossom chocked on her saliva bursting in a coughing fit, and Bubbles had to pat on her shoulders to calm her down.

 _"_ _How embarrassing"_ she thought, clearing her throat trying to buy some time. Bubbles couldn't possibly know… right?

"How is Adam? Is he a good kisser? What did you do? You have to tell me everything!"

"Bubbles wait I- Adam? Oh, right! Adam…" that had been close. She took a sigh of relief, but that feeling lasted very shortly. Bubbles was expecting answers she didn't have. However, it was much better to pretend she had been out with Adam, than tell the truth.

"Bubbles don't be ridiculous; I barely know him. We just…went for dinner and later talked a bit…and no, don't look at me like that, we only talked" that wasn't a total lie. She had gone to dinner, just with a different person.

"Ok, fine, but you still have to tell me how it was!" Bubbles was extremely perseverant, if she wanted something she usually obtained it and that night was no different. Her sister had stayed up exactly for that conversation to happen, Blossom knew she wasn't getting out of it easily. She had to spill something or she would never see her bed again.

"It was…nice?" Bubbles' gaze told her she could better. "Actually, it was lovely" and magically the knot on her tongue disappear.

"We were talking and my stomach grumbled. It was very embarrassing, you know how it gets when I'm hungry" Bubbles nodded, urging her sister to continue "Well… so he invited me to dinner" her sister almost screamed muffling her happy squealing with a pillow.

"Go on, go on!".

"He chose the place. He talked about it as if it was the best burger in the country and when we finally got there it was the most disgusting place I have ever seen! Bubbles I swear you would have never stepped a foot in it. It took some convincing from his part because I really wanted to leave, but it turned out he was right… the food was actually amazing".

Blossom discovered that talking about her evening wasn't really as hard as she had thought. If she switched the name Butch with the name Adam, she could almost tell the entire truth. She also discovered – to her surprise – that she kind of needed that. She had missed those conversations with Bubbles. Her sisters were her best friends, and who didn't like discussing boys in the dead of night with their best friends?

In that moment, it didn't matter she was talking about Butch, she just wanted to believe – even if just for a second – that she was a normal teenager dealing with problems all teenagers had. Playing pretending was nice, comforting and a little wishful.

She stopped, for a second lost in the memories of a few hours before. Butch sat in front of her, an amused smirk on his face. She felt the urge to roll her eyes, Butch's silly jokes still ringing in her ears and a smile stupidly formed on her lips.

"Yes, it was… lovely. I was a mess. I am still a mess. My hair is dirty, I am still wearing my uniform, and I am sure my face doesn't look very good at the moment, but…he didn't mind. I never felt uncomfortable or out of place with him." her voice was very soft and feminine. Almost a whisper. She had spoken with that smile coming through her words, her eyes lowered as if she was deep in thoughts.

Was she really talking about Butch? That  _Butch_? Listening to her own voice narrating what had just happened had made everything much more real. That dinner with him could almost be considered… a date?

What was happening to her life for her to be discussing her late night escapade with one of the Rowdyruff, while her sister was listening to her with heart-shaped eyes?

The silence that followed – and the lack of excited squeaking – from Bubbles made her realize the conversation was probably becoming a bit too serious. She cleared her throat and smoothed the wrinkles on her skirt.

"That's about it. Oh, and we ended up sharing fries" Bubbles' excitement was back and she hugged the pillow close to her chest wiggling happily.

"This is the cutest story, Bloss! So, do you like him?" Blossom was speechless, which really didn't happen often.

"I… I don't know" she answered honestly. She had never thought about that, for her Butch had always been, well, Butch. She didn't even know liking him could be a possibility.

"I enjoy his company?" she tried unsure.

"Come on Blossom! What is there not to like?" Bubbles scooted a bit closer, eyes open wide and pink cheeks illuminated by the light coming from the TV.

"He is handsome" she raised one finger to support her first point.

That was easily true. That had been evident since the very first time they had met. Even if in full superhero mode, his good look hadn't been lost on her. He was tall, built and he had a very, very nice smile.

"He has a dreamy body" Bubbles raised a second finger. Her voice serious as if she had been talking about hard science facts.

"Bubbles that's the same thing as the first point, you are cheating" Blossom threw a pillow at her sister, but Bubbles avoided floating lazily in the air. She stuck her tongue out and show proudly her two raised fingers making the peace sign.

"Well, maybe, but have you seen him? It still counts for two!" Blossom merely shook her head in fake disapproval.

Bubbles was, once again, right. Butch did have a nice body, which in all honesty, deserved much more than two points.

"Number three: he is very smart".

"Well… most times" she added in a whisper talking to herself. Butch was smart. He was a quick thinker, he was resourceful and very adaptive.

He did love to hide that behind humor and crassness, but it was clear to her that he was more mature that what he liked to show. He obviously hadn't had an easy life and that had made him grow.

"He listens to me." she said without even realizing it, interrupting Bubbles' listing, who slowly got back on the couch, careful not to ruin the moment in any way. It was rare Blossom opened up, and those moments had to be treasured.

That was something she had noticed a few times. He seemed to listen to her ideas, her opinions. He never looked bored or, more importantly, intimidated.

"I like to listen to him too" she said after a few seconds realizing the feeling was mutual. He was always a surprise, never knowing what to expect from him. She couldn't read him and that made him incredibly interesting.

"And… and he is incredibly funny. He is always able to make me smile" and maybe that was what she liked the most about him. She had fun with him, she really did.

They stayed silent. Blossom knew she had said too much. She didn't even know where all of that had come from.

She didn't love opening up, but she was glad it had happened with Bubbles. Because if there was someone who she trusted would be respectful of her vulnerability that was her.

Seconds passed, the light from the television was dancing around the room with the images moving on the screen.

Bubbles stretched like a cat, a sly smile on her lips.

"Yeah… Butch seems like a catch" she casually commented, arms still stretched in the air.

"Yes Butch is-What? Adam! You mean Adam!" Blossom jumped in her seat, face suddenly red.

"The same Adam who is at his little cousin's birthday dinner. He posted a story on Instagram asking to be saved" Bubbles smirk was as big as her face while she showed her sister the picture on her phone.

"I-I…" Blossom had to accept there was no way she could turn the cards in her favor. It was too late. Her sister was basking in her little victory enjoying every second.

Bubbles had known what she was doing from the beginning and had guided her through the whole conversation to make her say exactly what she had wanted. Who thought Blossom was the clever one out of the three of them had never been more wrong.

"You…deceiving little monster" she threw another pillow and Bubbles grabbed it laughing.

"You are evil" she said with arms crossed and nose pointed in the air, a smile fighting its way out.

"So evil, you don't even know" they both laughed this time, and Bubbles ended up throwing herself on Blossom hugging her tightly.

After a few seconds, she broke the hug looking for her sister's eyes.

"You know everything you told me is safe between us two" she looked for a sign of understanding in her sister's eyes and continue. She lowered her voice and put both hands on her chest.

"I was feeling so guilty about that stupid plan. I didn't want you to spend time with someone not only potentially dangerous, but that you couldn't stand. Knowing you are ok with all of this makes me feel much better. And I am very happy he makes you smile. That is very sweet" Blossom was expecting Bubbles' body to relax or to hear a sigh of relief.

"But?" she asked when none came.

"He is still Butch" that was the exact answer she was expecting.

"I know. Trust me I know. There is no single moment where my guard is down when I am with him. Everything I told you doesn't mean we are suddenly friends or that I – we – can trust him. I still think he is dangerous and I still think we have to discover what is going on." for a second she was Blossom the leader of the Powerpuff girls. She spoke with firm voice and projecting all of her confidence. She wanted to reassured Bubbles, she knew how to take care of herself.

She also knew he was hiding something. All those sudden mood changes, the unwillingness to speak about his come back to town, they were all signs something was wrong.

"At the same time though, when I am with him it's like I am meeting a whole new person, I had always known" it was hard to explain, almost impossible. She tried to collect her thoughts and when she spoke again her voice came out tentative, almost as if she was testing a new theory.

"I know it sounds crazy, but he really is an interesting person. There is so much we don't know about the Rowdyruff boys. The last time we met, we were children. We have changed and so have they. It's… just very interesting to get to know a person you thought you have been knowing your whole life, but that in reality you have never really met" she finished her monologue realizing the conversation was taking a very abstract path.

Bubbles took both of her hands in hers and smiled softly.

"Thank you for telling me all of this" she simply said.

"In all honesty, I think I needed this conversation" they exchanged a knowing look and slowly relaxed on the couch.

"Just… be careful, but not too careful. Do you know what I mean?"

"I think I do".


End file.
